Nowadays, the demand for clean renewable sources of energy has increased significantly; the production of solar cells and Photovoltaic systems has been doubling every two years since 2002. This rise makes it the fastest growing energy technology with a turnover of around EUR 10 billion in 2007.
Cumulative worldwide PV capacity was approximately of 9.5 GW (9 500 000 000 W) by the end of 2007. Europe contributes to these capacity with 4.5 GW (4 500 000 000 W). European solar cells reached 1.063 MW (1 063 000 W) in 2007, which supposes an increase of 56% compared to 2006. Europe represents about the 30% of the worldwide photovoltaic energy production.
The three leading countries, Germany, Japan and the USA, represent nearly 89% of the total worldwide PV installed capacity. The German market continues to be ahead of the Japanese market, which should, according to EPIA's 2008 Photovoltaic Energy Barometer, remain stable in 2007 (286.6MWp installed in 2006), as well as the American market, estimated at 205 MWp in 2007 (143 MWp installed in 2006). The PV market is expected to significantly expand into emerging economies such as China and India. At the European level, Spain is in position to become the second biggest market (representing 11% of total EU installed capacity), which is largely due to the introduction of favorable feed-in tariffs (it is a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies.)
The research community for photovoltaics in Europe is growing fast and is spread out across the EU. It is estimated that there are more than 5 000 full-time equivalent researchers working in photovoltaics.
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