Deployment Pathways for Photovoltaics in the EU Towards 2020: Comparing Economic Factors with Policies at Municipal Level

Abstract

The Covenant of Mayors is a European movement involving local authorities voluntarily committing to meet and exceed the European Union's 20% CO2 reduction objective for 2020 by increasing energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources. Photovoltaics (PV) can play an important role in this as a distributed form of electricity production, adaptable to the urban environment and to see the impact of this a preliminary analysis has been made of the Covenant of Mayors' plans for PV.. The data reveal widely varying predicted contributions of PV to local energy production for 2020, many of which are an order of magnitude below expected level of total potential for PV energy yield for a given urban area.. There is therefore huge scope to increase local PV electricity with efficient policy measures, providing also a powerful boost to the European PV market.