PHOTON International - The Photovoltaic Magazine

The European Commission (EC) has published an excellent overview of European PV research on the Internet.


European PV R&D: The 194-page EU study gives a good overview of PV research on the Continent.

The 194-page document, entitled European Photovoltaics Projects 1999-2002, lists around 80 projects that were funded between 1999 and 2002 as a part of the Fifth Framework Programme for Research (FP5). These projects cover a variety of areas, including solar silicon research, cell production, and the building-integration of modules, in a number of different European countries. The background and objectives of each project is explained on a two-page spread. Contact information, including telephone numbers and email addresses, rounds out the project descriptions.

The report is primarily aimed at researchers and businessmen, since the EU's intention is to improve communications and cooperation in the industry and thus give a boost to the development of this »promising and technologically challenging sector of the economy.« The EU's projects, which are described in the first section of the overview, are representative of this intention. One example is the PV-Net project completed in November. A consortium of institutes and companies organized symposia and workshops in which experts from various areas in PV research as well as manufacturing came together. Perhaps the project of greatest interest to the industry was the development of a PV Roadmap that lays out a path to reach the EC's goal of 3 GW installed capacity by 2010.

An English version of the study can be downloaded free of charge from:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/energy/pdf/
european_photovoltaics_en.pdf