Photovoltaics in Europe in the Year 2020

This work presents an overview of the development and significance of photovoltaics in Europe since the 1980s, with particular focus on forecasts until 2020. All the important aspects of the use of solar energy are covered on the basis of the results of an expert poll (Delphi method). Account is taken of economic aspects, employment effects, the geographic conditions for the use of renewable sources of energy and the efforts on the part of governments to promote national photovoltaic programmes. Paradoxically, there is within Europe a marked north-south divide, with the use of the sun as a source of energy encountering far lower acceptance in the sunny countries of the Mediterranean than in the far north of the continent with its few hours of sunshine. The exhaustion of fossil fuel reserves is foreseeable in the near future and is predicted to involve an increase in importance of renewable sources of energy, primarily solar and wind energy. In this context, the author of the study sets out a number of interesting scenarios for the future.