by Edward Milford
8. April 2009 11:27
Recent figures released by the European Photovoltaic Industry show the continued, phenomenal growth of the photovoltaic (PV) industry. The global, annual manufacturing capacity increased to 5.6 GW from 2.4GW in 2007. Put another way, more manufacturing capacity was installed in 2008, than existed at the start of the year. The total global installed PV capacity is now touching 15 GW.
For those of us who have been connected to the industry for over 10 years, these numbers are wondrous and barely imaginable. Back in 1998, global PV capacity was about 150 MW; the industry has grown by a factor of nearly 40 in ten years.
To put these figures in context, remember that a nuclear power station probably has a capacity of around 1 GW (one gigawatt, or one thousand megawatts, or one million kilowatts). So the solar industry installed the equivalent capacity of five nuclear power stations last year. Remember, though, that capacity is not output; a nuclear power station may be on line for 80-90% of the time, while a PV cell only generates when the sun is shining, and only at maximum capacity when it is bright so they average about 20% output. Even so, the PV industry in 2008 probably added the output equivalent to a nuclear power station.
This puts the news last week that BP Solar are laying off jobs in context – and says everything there is to say about BP. The growth in the PV industry is coming from small, focused, dedicated companies with state of the art manufacturing, who are flexible and amazingly quick to develop potential. A great, lumbering fossil-fuel giant like BP is wholly unable to cope in this dynamic new industry.
