Page 46 - A Comprehensive Guide to Solar Energy Systems

Chapter 3 • Solar Power in Europe: Status and Outlook 41

FIGURE 3.3 The breakdown of the European solar PV capacity (residential, commercial, industrial, and utility) for the
period up to 2016 for selected countries. Copyright of SolarPower Europe 2017.
3.2.1 Main Reasons for Solar Market Growth in Europe
Despite a further decline of solar demand in the United Kingdom by more than half in
2017, the European PV market is forecasted to grow to 8.8 GW. The continent’s solar sector
association, SolarPower Europe, anticipates that other European countries will experience
a market growth in solar PV in 2017, which will continue in the coming years.
There are several reasons for this solar growth phase in Europe:
• Economic benefits of self-consumption: Solar is already much cheaper than retail
electricity in most European markets today and will continue to decrease in cost.
This will be a key driver for people to invest in on-site power generation. At the
same time, a stage has been reached in the European PV markets when consumers
are increasingly starting to understand that solar PV energy often makes economic
sense even without high feed-in tariff incentive programs. The quickly falling cost of
battery energy storage together with the benefits of digital and smart energy products,
supports the sales case for solar PV, as most consumers prefer to reach a higher
“energy autonomy” status and fully control their energy bills.
• Tenders: Tenders or auction tools have fully disclosed the low cost of solar power
and have been embraced by several European countries, substituting traditional
uncapped feed-in tariff schemes. France has recently announced and already started
a massive solar tender program for the next few years; Turkey has awarded a 1 GW
tender and in Germany the 2015 started tender pilot was turned into a regular
program and expanded in size. In Spain, solar PV was basically not awarded anything