Solar Cells Info

by Aaron Hand, Executive Editor, Electronic Media, Sept 2, 2008
Source: Semiconductor International
http://www.semiconductor.net/article/CA6591790.html

Particularly with this year’s European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference (EU PVSEC) taking place in Valencia, Spain, presenters and attendees alike are up in arms over the latest draft of the Spanish incentives for its solar industry. Spain’s current feed-in regulations for photovoltaic plants will run out at the end of this month, and the incentives are expected to be cut drastically — from a current cap of 1 GW to one of only 300 MW, which is expected to be about one-third of the country’s market size in 2008.

Although panelists at yesterday’s opening session and press conference represented organizations throughout Europe and the United States, as well as the Valencia government, representatives of Spain’s central government were noticeably absent, and were therefore unable to address the concerns about Spain’s regulation reforms head-on. However, Francisco Camps Ortiz, president of the region of Valencia, made an unscheduled appearance at a technical session this morning, and said he is urging his country to not put limits on PV incentives.

However, others throughout the industry made an open appeal to the Spanish government to change the current draft before it is too late.  “The present draft of the new regulation is too drastic and not acceptable for the industry,” said Javier Anta, president of ASIF (Asociación de la Industria Fotovoltaica, Madrid). Instead, the industry needs to be given time to adapt, he said, noting that he hoped the Spanish government would take an alternative route “to avoid the debacle of the PV industry in Spain in 2009.” There is little time left, however, especially considering that Spain’s PV industry has already been noticeably affected, he added.

Hans-Josef Fell, a member of the German Parliament who was instrumental in introducing Germany’s feed-in tariff system as an extremely effective way to grow his country’s PV industry, said that he could only appeal to the Spanish Parliament to not introduce such a limiting cap on annual investments, or in fact an upper limit at all.

Fell’s arguments related not only to Spain’s government, but to governments around the world that need to put an end to the stop-and-go situation that is common with continually expiring governmental incentive programs. He pointed to Germany’s success over Japan’s early lead in the PV industry, and over such sunny locales as Australia, noting that the differences could only be explained by the feed-in tariffs in Germany and the lack of such in the other countries. In the United States, the PV industry is currently being held back from its full potential in part by a solar investment tax credit that is set to expire at the end of this year, and that the U.S. Congress has so far failed to renew.

Several speakers yesterday pointed to the urgency of developing PV and other renewable energies during a time of such climate change, skyrocketing oil prices, and dependency on foreign energy sources. In Spain’s case, for example, the country has more than 80% energy dependency, according to Ernesto Macías, president of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA).

Although PV providers ultimately aim to get the cost per watt to competitive levels even without government incentives, until they reach that point, current tariffs and incentives help to accelerate market growth throughout the world. Macías agreed that it was necessary to keep promoting the feed-in tariff system in Europe, but also emphasized how important it is to reach grid parity (i.e., competitive levels with traditional fossil fuels) as soon as possible in order to eliminate reliance on government subsidies.