Solar power in the European Union
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Solar power in the European Union
Solar power consists of photovoltaic and solar thermal power.
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[edit] Photovoltaic solar power
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Photovoltaic cells in use on top of a building in Berlin.
| PV in Europe(MWp)[1] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Country | 2006 | 2005 | |
| 1 | Germany | 3,063 | 1,910 | |
| 2 | Spain | 118.1 | 57.6 | |
| 3 | Italy | 57.9 | 46.3 | |
| 4 | Netherlands | 51.2 | 50.8 | |
| 5 | France | 32.7 | 26.3 | |
| 6 | Austria | 29.0 | 24.0 | |
| 7 | Luxembourg | 23.6 | 23.6 | |
| 8 | UK | 13.6 | 10.9 | |
| 9 | Greece | 6.7 | 5.4 | |
| 10 | Sweden | 4.9 | 4.2 | |
| 11 | Belgium | 4.2 | 2.1 | |
| 12 | Finland | 4.1 | 4.0 | |
| 13 | Portugal | 3.5 | 3.0 | |
| 14 | Denmark | 2.9 | 2.7 | |
| 15 | Cyprus | 1.0 | 0.5 | |
| 16 | Czech Rep. | 0.8 | 0.5 | |
| 17 | Poland | 0.4 | 0.3 | |
| 18 | Slovenia | 0.4 | 0.2 | |
| 19 | Ireland | 0.3 | 0.3 | |
| 20 | Hungary | 0.2 | 0.2 | |
| 21 | Slovakia | 0.1 | 0.1 | |
| 22 | Malta | 0.1 | 0.1 | |
| 23 | Lithuania | 0.1 | 0.1 | |
| EU27 GWp | 3.42 | 2.17 | ||
The need for the strategic development of photovoltaic systems in the EU has led to the creation of PV-NET, a network that gathers representatives from all the sectors of the research and development community concerned with the photovoltaic solar energy industry (see solar cell). The network promotes communication between speakers through the organisation of specialised conferences, workshops and congresses.
This interaction has led to the editing of a waybill, finished in 2003 with the aim of providing a solid basis for EU leaders and European citizens to base their decisions and policy making and in order to help reach the objective set by the European Commission to multiply the use of photovoltaic systems by thirty times by 2010.
In 2002, the world production of photovoltaic modules surpassed 550 MW, of which more than the 50% was produced in the EU. At the end of 2004, 79% of all European capacity was in Germany, where 794 MWp had been installed. The European Commission anticipates that Germany may have installed around 4,500 MWp by 2010. [1].
Portugal has the largest photovoltaic power station in the world[2], which was completed in January 2007. The complex, called Serpa solar power plant, covers an area of 60-hectare. The 11-megawatt solar power plant will produce enough electricity for 8,000 homes and save more than 30,000 tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions. Near from there, Moura photovoltaic power station is under construction, which will be even bigger with an installed capacity of 62MWp. The first phase of construction should be finished in 2008, while the project completion is scheduled for 2010.
[edit] Solar heating
Solar heating is the usage of solar energy to provide space or water heating. Worldwide the use was 88 GWthermal (2005). Growth potential is enormous. At present the EU is second after China in the installations. If all EU countries used solar thermal as enthusiastically as the Austrians, the EU’s installed capacity would already be 91 GWth (130 million m2 today, far beyond the target of 100 million m2 by 2010, set by the White Paper in 1997. In 2005 solar heating in the EU was equivalent to more than 686,000 tons of oil. ESTIF’s minimum target is to produce solar heating equivalent to 5,600,000 tons of oil (2020). A more ambitious, but feasible, target is 73 millions tons of oil per year (2020) – a lorry row spanning 1,5 times around the globe.[2]
| Solar heating in Europe* (kWth)[3] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Land | Total kWth |
2006 | 2005 | 2004 | ||||
| Germany | 5 637 800 | 1 050 000 | 665 000 | 525 000 | ||||
| Greece | 2 301 040 | 168 000 | 154 350 | 150 500 | ||||
| Austria | 1 828 139 | 204 868 | 163 429 | 127 816 | ||||
| Italy | 598 661 | 130 200 | 88 941 | 68 417 | ||||
| Spain | 491 516 | 122 500 | 74 760 | 63 000 | ||||
| France | 430 920 | 154 000 | 85 050 | 36 400 | ||||
| Cyprus | 392 140 | 42 000 | 35 000 | 21 000 | ||||
| Switzerland | 310 484 | 36 304 | 27 392 | 21 812 | ||||
| Denmark | 253 596 | 17 710 | 14 875 | 14 000 | ||||
| Netherlands | 222 909 | 10 280 | 14 174 | 18 410 | ||||
| UK | 175 644 | 37 800 | 19 600 | 17 500 | ||||
| Sweden | 165 850 | 19 977 | 15 835 | 14 041 | ||||
| Portugal | 126 665 | 14 000 | 11 200 | 7 000 | ||||
| Poland | 117 264 | 28 980 | 19 390 | 20 230 | ||||
| Slovenia | 76 510 | 4 830 | 3 360 | 1 260 | ||||
| Czech Republic | 74 711 | 15 421 | 10 885 | 8 575 | ||||
| Belgium | 72 883 | 24 945 | 14 164 | 10 290 | ||||
| Slovakia | 50 925 | 5 950 | 5 250 | 3 850 | ||||
| Romania | 48 370 | 280 | 280 | 280 | ||||
| Bulgaria | 17 570 | 1 540 | 1 400 | 1 260 | ||||
| Malta | 16 702 | 3 150 | 2 800 | 2 951 | ||||
| Finland | 11 545 | 2 380 | 1 668 | 1 141 | ||||
| Luxembourg | 11 130 | 1 750 | 1 330 | 1 190 | ||||
| Ireland | 11 053 | 3 500 | 2 450 | 1 400 | ||||
| Hungary | 4 375 | 700 | 700 | 1 050 | ||||
| Latvia | 2 695 | 840 | 700 | 350 | ||||
| Lithuania | 1 925 | 420 | 350 | 350 | ||||
| Estonia | 784 | 210 | 175 | 175 | ||||
| EU27+CH GWth |
13.45 | 2.10 | 1.43 | 1.14 | ||||
| * = The relation between collector area and capacity: m2 = 0.7 kWthermal | ||||||||
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Photovoltaic energy barometer 2007 - EurObserv’ER Systèmes solaires Le journal des énergies renouvelables n° 178, s. 49-70, 4/2007
- ^ Solar Thermal Action Plan for Europe ESTIF, 1/2007
- ^ Solar Thermal Markets in Europe, Trends and market statistics 2006 European Solar Thermal Industry Federation ESTIF, June 2007
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