Sunny Future Ahead

Sunny Future Ahead!

The Photovoltaic sector is becoming a decisive employer in Europe and Worldwide.

The photovoltaic sector is particularly promising in terms of job and local wealth creation. The sector invests heavily in research and technological innovation and generates employment, which to a very high degree means skilled, high quality jobs. Moreover, the PV sector and the renewable energies in general have a decentralized structure, which leads to employment in the less industrialised areas.

The PV industry has created more than 75.000 jobs in Europe in the last few years, the following countries have been leading this trend:
In Germany (the largest PV market worldwide), employment in the PV sector rose from 1.500 (1999) to over 40.000 (2007)
In Spain, until 2007, more than 23.000 jobs were created
In Italy, until 2007, 1.700 jobs were created
In France over 2.100 persons are today directly employed by the photovoltaic sector

The European Photovoltaic Technology Platform estimates that the PV industry has the potential to create more than 200.000 jobs in the European Union by 2020 and ten times this number worldwide.

Historical development of cumulative installed global and EU PV capacity

The solar PV market has been booming over the last years and is forecast to confirm this trend in the coming years. By the end of 2007 the global cumulative capacity exceeded 9 GWp. The European Union contributes to around 50 % of the global cumulative capacity. We estimate that today, approximately 1,5 million households in Europe get electricity produced from solar photovoltaic electricity.

Long term potential of solar power

In the long term it is estimated that solar power could contribute to an increasing part of the total energy consumption. With appropriate policies both in developed and developing countries, EPIA and Greenpeace have devised in a joint scenario, that in 2030, photovoltaic could produce enough energy to supply electricity to 3,7 million people globally. The majority of them will be located in remote areas where there is no access to the electricity grid.
However efforts to achieve this potential have to start now. By switching to green energy today, you can contribute to this change.