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The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) released its SET for 2020 study and concluded that the thin-film industry is ready for the 12% target that EPIA has set. The study showed how PV has the potential to become a conventional power source in Europe by 2020. The paradigm-shift scenario, the study’s most progressive scenario, sets the target at 12% of the European Union’s electricity demands to be supplied by PV electricity by 2020.

“By 2020 thin-film technology is expected to represent about one-third of the total PV market; this constitutes a challenge but at the same time represents a great opportunity for the whole PV industry and related sectors,” said Adel El Gammal, EPIA Secretary General, at EPIA’s second international thin-film conference on November 12.

EPIA showed that with the current financial situation, securing finances is the most crucial factor needed to accomplish this goal. Investments must be made now, they stressed, so that competition can continue to increase. EPIA cited bringing down the costs, increasing the efficiency and lifetime of the PV systems, and upscaling towards mass production to be indispensable in reducing the cost of PV-generated electricity and to bring the photovoltaic industry to its full competitiveness with current mainstream energy sources.

“The PV industry has proved today that the technology and the capacity for mass production are ready to make PV a mainstream energy source, however we need to ensure that the market and legal conditions are appropriate to guarantee a sustainable market in the next years,” concluded Bernhard Dimmler, CEO of Würth Solar and chairman of the conference.