PV Policy Group

With an actually installed capacity of only around 562 MWp by the end of 2003 the European PV industry clearly lacks behind political targets. The proposed action aims to overcome political-legal barriers that are currently preventing investments in the majority of European PV markets: lack of political commitment and effective incentive schemes, insufficient and disparate monitoring systems and lack of co-operation between key actors in the definition of political action, especially on transnational level. 8 national energy agencies of key “solar nations” (DE, FR, NL, AUT, SL, POR, GR, ES) will form a "PV Policy Core Group" to define common action for the improvement and aligment of national support systems for PV. The Core Group will focus on policy issues and closely interact with existing, more technology-oriented networks and complementary ALTENER-projects in the PV area. In addition, lessons learned from more advanced RES sectors like wind energy are used by the Core Group.

In a first step, a PV Policy Database and a European Best Practice Report on national Support Schemes, PV Regulatory Frameworks and Monitoring Systems (WP2) delivers a comprehensive and coherent basis for the PV Policy Core Group’s assessment, exchange and action planning processes. The European Core Group (WP3) itself is split into two types of sub-groups with specific tasks:

On the national level the respective energy agencies as “National Contact Points” moderate intense consultation processes with key actors in the PV sector whose outcomes feed back to the European Core Group level (WP4)
On the thematic level, a transnational Working Group collaborate to draw conclusions from the Best Practice study with regard to effective political action in the fields "national support schemes", “national regulatory frameworks” and "national monitoring systems" (WP 5)

The outcomes from discussions on the three levels are finally merged to a joint Action Plan and Position Paper directed to decision-makers on both EU and national levels. Project results are disseminated across Europe (WP6, WP7).

The project consortium wants to achieve:

a shared assessment of the current market situation in 8 countries with a focus on national support schemes and strategic options for improvement
a clear commitment to national PV targets (installed MWp + % of national electricity consumption) until 2007, 2010 and 2020
a joint Action Plan to improve and align own activities for PV promotion in their countries until 2007, 2010 and 2020
a common Position Paper to political decision-makers on both Community and national level on how to improve and harmonise the current support framework for PV investments until 2010 and 2020

Over the medium run, the Core Group will also strengthen the position of the EU in the world PV market, in competition with other regions like Japan and North America, for which a key success factor is increasing the efficiency of the support given out by the EC and the governments of the different member states of the EU. The proposed action will help to improve the coherence of PV funding programmes in Europe, as well as the fine-tuning between market- and R&D-oriented instruments.