PV business is rapidly expanding worldwide; at the same time interest in, support for, as well as the urgent need for more sustainable and secure energy services present a ‘window of opportunity’ for PV to establish itself as a well-recognized and widely accepted energy technology. PVPS has a critical enabling role in this process. Since the inception of the PVPS Implementing Agreement in 1993, photovoltaic technology and the markets for PV have changed enormously. Awareness of PV’s role in delivering sustainable energy services, and knowledge of the factors that govern its successful application have also evolved over the last decade, strongly assisted by the IEA’s collaborative PVPS initiative. However, PVPS’s job is far from complete. It is fair to say that PV is technically mature today for use in decentralized energy systems and small scale energy production. While industry continues to pursue technological development – to improve system efficiency and product durability, streamline manufacturing and develop new products and devices – PV is still very much in its infancy in terms, for instance, of the extent of manufacture, supply, distribution and support chains, the number of customers reached, the amount of energy services delivered or the overall contribution to global energy supply. More widespread implementation across the various application areas, such as building integrated systems on an urban scale, medium and large size grid-connected systems, support of weak grids and the delivery of energy services in developing countries, present many technical and non-technical issues that still need tobe addressed. This also demands the involvement of a far wider range of stakeholders than in the past, as well as requiring better interaction with other energy and building related tech- nologies and increasingly with customers. This in turn presents a whole new raft of stakeholder needs for information, tools and resources as well as further technological and product development (see box). PVPS’s future role will therefore focus on addressing these needs to promote and facilitate this cross-sectoral awareness and engage a broader participation in PV market development. International cooperation within the IEA  PVPS framework can contribute to resolving some of these aspects by collectively defining and addressing the key issues and undertaking collaborative collection of information, research, analysis, establishing recommended practice and disseminating well targeted information. The PVPS Osaka Conference provides an excellent opportunity for the various stakeholder groups to discuss and refine the PVPS future strategy and to resolve how the Programme can contribute most effectively towards large-scale implementation and the transition to self-sustaining markets.

Panta Rhei houses in Nieuwland, Amersfoort, the Netherlands by architect Van Straalen. [Photo: Ecofys] PVPS - meeting the needs of a broad range of stakeholders • Continued objective and independent information collection and analysis of the main technological trends, new products and applications, market development, implementation activities, standards, training, education, as wellas policy development; • Collection and analysis of experience gained in technical and non-technical areas and formulation of lessons learned; • Contribution to cost reductions by evaluation of PV systems to help establish meaningful guidelines for system design with respect to the actual needs of the system owner; • Optimization of system oriented approaches, with a stronger focus on the related framework (e.g. the building, the energy management system, etc.); • Reliability and durability of photovoltaic power systems; • Technical issues of grid-connected photovoltaic power systems in weak grids; • Innovative and adapted financing and marketing initiatives; • Quality assurance and standards, training and education, certification; • Support and monitoring in all aspects of large scale demonstration activities; • Supporting the development of PV towards competitiveness with other sources of electricity supply; • Facilitation of the development and deployment of policies and programmes to accomplish the transition to unsubsidized markets and the aggregation of fragmented developing country markets.

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