4.6.4 Improving the electricity network

For power companies and their customers, PV has the advantage of providing relatively quick and modular deployment. This can offset investment in major new plant and help to strengthen the electricity network, particularly at the end of the distribution line. Since power is generated close to the point of use, such distributed generators reduce transmission losses, can improve service reliability for customers and help limit maximum demand.

 

4.7 Conclusion

PV power generation is now economically competitive for loads of up to a few kW in many remote sites away from the mains electricity grid, and interest is growing world-wide in the development of grid connected PV power generation. Of particular interest is the integration of PV modules into buildings, where they can act not only as power generators but as architectural elements. Module costs can be offset against the costs of the cladding which they replace, resulting in a reduction in the cost of electricity.

It already supplies electricity to hundreds of thousands of people around the world, provides employment for several tens of thousands and already constitutes an annual business worth more than 1 billion Euro. Projections indicate that solar electricity could be making a major contribution to the global energy mix within a generation and represent a business worth 75 billion Euro per annum by 2020.