Solar generated electricity now supplies at least 5 percent of energy demand in certain European countries such as Italy and Germany and is expected to rise to between 8 and 10 percent by 2020, thus making solar more competitive. By the end of 2012, installed European PV systems counted over 2.5 million and that number is expected to double in the next 5 years. Massive solar PV provision is therefore not just inevitable but is already becoming a reality.
The increasing competitiveness of solar means that utilities throughout Europe are having to renew their business strategies and review their investments in national grids. The issue is due to be discussed at the forthcoming ‘Solar & Utility 2.0: Solar serving the grid’ conference to be held on April 24th at the Kempinsky Hotel – Gravenbruch in Frankfurt, Germany. Subjects up for discussion will include the impacts on energy transmission and distribution companies and how they can benefit, how the grid will be able to handle the increasing amount of solar generated electricity and the experiences and solutions that are already available.
The increasing success of solar PV is demonstrated by the world record set by Germany on May 26th 2012 when German PV plants contributed 22GW of solar power, almost half of the peak electricity needed in the country on that particular day. More than 30 percent of all installed solar PV power in the world is generated by Germany with 7.6GW of new solar power installed in 2012 beating 2011’s record of 7.5GW. According to the roadmap of the German solar industry association the country could see solar supplying 10 percent of the electricity demand by 2020. In Italy solar already covers 10 percent of peak demand with 500,000 systems installed.
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