Despite module and inverter shortages and a lack of well-trained installers as well as significantly higher prices than seen in Germany, the UK solar market is claimed to be the fastest growing in the world right now. According to market research firm iSuppli, solar system installations will reach 96MW in 2010, up 1500% from barely a year ago and before the feed-in tariff (FiT) was introduced in April. In 2009, only 6MW had been installed.
Thin-film module manufacturing costs took a significant fall in the second quarter as First Solar continued to lead the PV industry in the lowest cost-per-watt race.
An announcement by Sharp Solar outlining the potential boom in the Turkish PV market has referred to the country’s government’s recent introduction of a €0.28 feed-in tariff for the first 10 years, with a rate of €0.22 thereafter for another 10-year period. Turkey receives an average of seven hours of sunshine per day, with a radiation intensity of 1,300 kilowatt-hours per square metre.
Preliminary 2009 market figures for the PV industry have been issued by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), after its recent workshop was held in Rome, Italy. The EPIA said that 6.4GW of newly installed capacity was achieved in 2009, reaching a total capacity of over 20GW worldwide. Although this was hailed as being the most important annual capacity increase ever, due in part to the economic recession, 2010 is expected to see installations increase by at least 40%, while the annual growth is expected to increase by more than 15%.
Allora Minerals has been busy, acquiring the remaining assets of OptiSolar, receiving preliminary approval to garner millions of Euro in grants for German projects, and getting shareholder approval to change its name to that of another company whose assets it's buying, EPOD Solar (ESI). The OptiSolar deal will bring the once-promising thin-film PV company's intellectual property and its manufacturing and R&D facilities in Northern California into ESI's portfolio.
