During a career spanning some 25 years, Emmanuel Fabre has emerged as one of the leading figures in the European PV industry. Mr Fabre served 10 years with Philips RTC, followed by 8 years with Photowatt, before assuming his present position as managing director of NAPS France 7 years ago. He is also serving his second term of office as president of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA).

Firstly, could you describe why and how EPA came to be formed?
During the early 80's many European PV industrialists recognized that if our comparatively small voices were going to be heard, we would need to present a united front to the outside world. This gave rise to the idea of an association, which would act as a focus and mouthpiece for PV industrialists, and so EPIA was formed in 1985. We now have some 35 members, and can count amongst our number all of the major European PV companies - a fact, which has helped us to gain substantial credibility with the European Union.

Is the European PV industry in good health at present?
In terms of world shipments, the industry both in Europe and abroad, has been steadily growing throughout the past decade. Towards the end of the 80's, market growth rates were in the region of 15% to 20%. The world recession affected market expansion somewhat, but growth continued at around 6% to 8% during 1992 and 1993. According to our best industry sources, last year was very encouraging, with shipments up 14% in the previous year. We have been particularly please to see that penetration by European companies on the world market has risen dramatically in recent years - increasing by over 28% in 1994 compared to 1993. Europe's three year average growth rate exceeds that of both Japan and the USA, and our annual production is now only exceeded by the USA. I am confident that we can continue to expand in the near future. However, we should not overlook the fact that in terms of the ultimate potential for PV, the cumulative production to date has been little more than a drop in the ocean.

What are the reasons for this relatively slow market development?
In industrialized countries, where consumers are already grid-connected, high system costs are a major stumbling block. Insufficient support from utilities and governments and a failure to consider PV above, or even alongside, conventional power sources are also substantial barriers to the uptake of grid-connected systems, whilst a general uncertainty or caution on the part of planners, designers and users is another area for improvement. In developing countries, where PV has already been proven to be reliable and cost-effective, there are different obstacles. Many potential users have difficulty in financing purchases. There an also be a lack of awareness of the potential for PV applications, a scarcity of technical skills, and a general lack of infrastructure, which makes project planning, implementation and support difficult.

How do you plan to overcome these problems?
The solutions to the respective obstacles are clear and the PV industry itself is now confronting those areas where it can have an impact - reducing production cost, and improving performance and reliability of systems. For instance, while crystalline silicon (c-Si) cells are still the main basis of PV modules, thin-film modules are now in commercial production, following promising pilot runs. These lend themselves well to large volume, low cost production and could therefore be a cheaper alternative to c-Si in the future, although stable efficiencies of thin film modules will have to improve significantly before they offer a serious challenge to c-Si.
There remain, however, a large number of issues, which are directed by government policy and by the utility and funding agency decision-makers. These we do not have direct control over and as such will require considerable effort to influence.

So how do you foresee the market developing up to 2010?
That depends a great deal on the level of stimulation both from within the industry itself, and from government, utilities, and other agencies. If we do nothing to encourage the market, beyond that which we are already doing, then growth should continue at approximately the present rate - i.e. around 15% per year. However, our main objective now is to promote a significant increase in the contribution of electricity generated from PV. We are confident that if we manage this, then the European PV industry will be able to maintain its competitive position in the international market.
In the extreme case, that we manage to fulfil all of our objectives, we could achieve an annual expansion of the PV market by as much as 35%. This would involved convincing political and utility decision-makers of the urgency of implementing arrangements, which would allow PV to compete with conventional power sources, cultivating greater awareness of our products, and achieving the technology breakthroughs and cost reductions that we are presently chasing.

You obviously have great ambitions for expanding the PV market, but what are your achievable goals? Realistically, we are concentrating on securing political support for a programme with a target to install 2000 MWp in Europe coupled with the supply of 20 million solar home systems to the developing world by 2010. This corresponds to a manufacturing capacity of 1000 MWp per year by tat time. Such a scenario would be pleasing to PV industrialists, but it would also be beneficial to Europe as a whole, not least in terms of the direct employment creation, which could exceed 60 000, and the abatement of 2 million tonnes per year of CO2, which would otherwise be emitted as power generation by-products from EU-countries. Increased diversity and improved strategic stability of energy supply, as Europe's own oil and gas reserves are reduced, also weigh in favour of PV. And the next step? The process is no doubt going to be a gradual one, but EPIA has devized a comprehensive Action Plan based on achievable targets of production and installation, which we believe will enable us to fulfil our ambitions. However, the next occasion for assessing our progress will be the 13th European PV Conference in Nice in October. Please join us there!

Proposed programmes of the EPIA action plan for a commercially stable PV market • European 500 MWp Grid-Connect Programme: A major programme of public support incorporating a 100 000 PV roof (300 MWp) project, a 2000 PV building facades (100 MWp) project, a large scale power plant (100 MWp) project. • European 100 000 Isolated Building Programme: The target electrification with PV of 100 000 isolated buildings, mainly in Southern Europe. • Developing World Programme: A European enabled installation of 20 million solar lanterns or solar home systems (1000 MWp). • Low Cost Manufacturing Partnership Investment Programme: A partnership for new large-scale manufacturing plant involving the PV industry, European Commission, electricity utilities and European investment funds.

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