Spectacular technical breakthroughs are not to be expected of this industry but rather a continuous improvement in efficiencies and material technology - evolution and not revolution. New materials from nano-science may create breakthroughs, but not overnight. Further R & D is being carried out to improve the efficiency of all basic types of cells, with laboratory efficiencies for single crystal over 25 %, and for thin film technologies over 15 % being achieved. The main goals of R & D efforts are to reduce the silicon consumption and the wafer thickness from 250µm to 160µm, while simultaneously increasing the life-time expectancy of PV modules from 20 to 35 years. A variety of thin film technologies are presently entering the market on the industrial scale, namely CIGS, CdTe and hybrid cells of amorphous and microcrystalline silicon. The following general long-term trends and observations for PV technology funding in the IEA PVPS countries can be reported: over the previous decade, public spending on PV has doubled; initially this spending was largely focused on RD&D; the amount spent on market stimulation increased at the expense of RD&D (in both absolute and relative terms) until 2001; 2004 saw the previously steadily increasing budgets for market stimulation decrease for the first time in a decade.