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EPIA President Winfried Hoffmann said that in sun-bathed
southern Italy investments in photovoltaics would next year
start to compete with electricity from the national power grid.
But problems with the administrative burden and difficulties
connecting to the grid are holding the industry back.
If given sufficient initial support, photovoltaic would
become competitive with other power sources in nearly
three-quarters of the European Union by 2020, and could then
stand on its own without subsidies, Hoffmann added.
He said solar power currently cost around 0.2-0.4 euros per
kilowatt, four to eight times more expensive than fossil-fuel
based power.
But the photovoltaic industry has cut costs in half every
eight years and would continue to do so, while fossil-fuel based
electricity will become increasingly expensive as the sector has
to start buying permits to emit CO2 under the EU Emissions
Trading Scheme from 2013.
EPIA expects photovoltaic power to supply between 4 percent
and 6 percent of European electricity needs by 2020, up from
less than 1 percent at present.
But with improved government support, that share could
increase to 12 percent by 2020, helping the EU meet its goal of
getting a fifth of its energy from renewable sources by the same
date.
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