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To better understand the challenges that Belgium is going to face in the short to medium term, we have interviewed representatives of two of the Belgium PV associations, EDORA and EF4. These are playing a very active role in order to advocate Solar Photovoltaics towards the Belgium decision-makers.

The following interviews provide the views of EF4.

Interview with Manoel Rekinger, Photovoltaic Business Facilitator at Energie Facteur 4

How has the photovoltaic industry evolved in Wallonia during the last few years and how do you see market evolving in the next 2 to 3 years?

PV capacity installed in Belgium during the last two years was clearly well above expectations positioning the country as the ninth and sixth best world market in 2008 (50 MW) and 2009 (292 MW) respectively.  It is a wonderful accomplishment for such a small country.

In Belgium energy is a regional competency shared among three regions and the market should be considered as three PV submarkets with specific incentives and different growths. Despite the fact that Flemish and Walloon support schemes were not launched at the same time, in 2006 and 2008 respectively, they are based mainly on the same mechanisms: reverse kWh-metering up to 10 kW, fiscal deduction for investment and loans and finally Green Certificates financed by a levy on consumer tariffs. But prices and the duration of granting GC differ in each region.

In view of the market in 2009, one might think that PV in Belgium is developing only in the Flemish Region.  But with a support mechanism less than 2 years old and a number of inhabitants half as much, PV in Wallonia was actually very well developed in 2008 and 2009 with an annual market of 9 MW and 38 MW respectively. Proportionately, we note that growth is the same in Wallonia for 2008-2009 as in Flanders for 2007-2008.

But contrary to the Flemish market, which is well-developed in the household and industrial segments, installed photovoltaic capacity in Wallonia is mainly composed of small residential systems with an average size of 3.6 kW. For this particular segment, all conditions are in place for the market to move forward during the next three years. However, growth should stabilise and become more sustainable in relation to a more mature market. We expect the Walloon market in 2010 to be between 35 and 45 MW with a recovery in Q3 after a difficult Q1, due to the suppression of the regional bonus for residential systems.

For the industrial segment in Wallonia, administrative and technical facilities are not the same as for households and it is less easy to develop a PV system with a strong business plan. For us, the Walloon support scheme must evolve in the coming years to enable the industrial segment to grow and therefore to allow the market to develop fully while not creating windfall.

What are the most important challenges the Walloon market and sector will have to face according to EF4 in the next 5 years?

First, it is necessary to establish a 2020 regional goal for Photovoltaics. It is indeed very difficult to think about the future without knowing exactly where we are going and what might be expected from the sector.  We also believe that the main difficulty in defining an ambitious but sustainable objective comes from the fact that the potential of Photovoltaics has really changed over the past 10 years but the picture of an energy "for the future" remains.

Therefore, it will be necessary in future years to continue to raise awareness of the real possibilities of Photovoltaics as a real and competitive player in the energy mix.In this regard, EF4 has collaborated with both federations in Wallonia, EDORA and RBF, to define the development potential of Photovoltaics. These studies have shown that a potential between 750 and 2200 MW is quite feasible by 2020 for our Region (2-6% of the estimated final consumption of electricity in 2020). 

As I noted earlier, we believe that the Walloon PV Industry will be more mature when the market share will be balanced among all the different segments. In order to ensure both a healthy development of the sector and to achieve a feasible and useful objective, we think that the following points must be discussed and studied jointly by the Photovoltaic sector (RBF and EDORA) and the Energy Administration:

• The progressive relaxation of constraints on Green Certificates and medium to large PV systems
• The simplification of administrative procedures
• The definition of a flexible and adaptive support mechanism with visibility on the short to medium term
• The development and strengthening of quality certification for PV in relation to the European Directive
• The role of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) and how to promote and normalise this type of system