France
The French Agency for Environment and Energy Management
(ADEME) is the government organisation charged with
promoting the development of renewable energies. In
the mid-1990’s ADEME was joined by the national electricity
utility, Electricité de France (EDF) which added a
new impetus to the solar energy sector.
Until a change of policy by the French Government
(concerning energy management and the development
of renewable energy sources) led to an grid-connected
demonstration programme and thence to actual development,
solar energy had been harnessed by off-grid installations.
At end-1999 there was 9 121 kWp of installed PV power
of which 8 772 kWp was off-grid. PV is mostly utilised
in rural locations for water pumping and communication
devices.
An ADEME action programme that will run until 2006
will, in addition to the promotion of other renewable
energies, focus on further research, technological
development and demonstration of PV projects. It was
planned that following the installation of some 156
kWp of grid-connected "PV roofs" in the late 1990’s,
a further 500 kWp built-integrated systems would be
completed between 1999 and 2001.
There is some direct use of solar power: at end-1998
there was a total of 460 000 m2 installed
Germany
Various actions taken by the Federal Government during
the past 25 years have ensured that since 1995 Germany
has led Europe in installed PV power. Government funding
of R,D&D for PV began in 1974 and has continued, with
support from the Federal German Environmental Foundation
(since 1990). During the 1980’s demonstration projects
led to more than 70 PV pilot systems becoming operational;
the "1 000 Roofs Programme" launched in 1990 was oversubscribed
and resulted in the installation of nearly 2 000 systems
on domestic roofs between 1991-1996. The "Electricity
Feed-in" law (Stromeinspeisungsgesetz) which came
into effect in 1991 has been advantageous to electricity
production from renewable energies. Furthermore, a
new law, the Renewable Energy Act (effective 1 April
2000), is aimed at increasing the share of renewable
energy in electricity production from 5% to 10% by
2010, thus providing even greater stimulation of the
PV market.
Having grown 42% per annum between 1992 and 1999 installed
PV capacity was 69 500 kWp at end-1999, of which on-grid
distributed capacity represented 71%. Following the
"1 000 Roofs Programme", the Federal Ministry of Economics
and Technology launched the "100 000 Roofs Programme"
in January 1999. Loans are provided at low interest
rates (0% in 1999) and repaid over a 10-year period.
The target capacity for the Programme is 300 MWp by
2003. The Programme has led to an increased number
of companies manufacturing modules and it is planned
to expand annual production capability to 70 MWp by
end-2001.
Country Notes
(SOLAR ENERGY)
Australia || Canada
|| China
|| France
|| Germany
|| India
|| Indonesia
|| Israel
|| Italy
|| Japan
|| Kenya
|| Korea
(Republic) || Mexico
|| Netherlands
|| Norway
|| South
Africa || Spain
|| Switzerland
|| Thailand
|| United
States Of America
