I am interested in this technology and I would like to take the next step…

How can I proceed ? Who should I contact ?

You are convinced that solar photovoltaic energy is an increasingly important source of energy and you would like to contribute to its development by installing a photovoltaic system at home.

Good news!

In an increasing number of countries, adapted support mechanisms are helping citizens to take the next step by providing a financial support. This is, in particular the case in Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Greece or Slovenia where feed-in tariff schemes have been adopted.

How do feed-in tariff mechanisms work in practice?

If you install a PV system at home, all electricity generated can be injected and sold to the electricity provider at higher price than the price paid in your monthly electricity bill. This mechanism enables you to pay-back your investment in a short time. The country which has best succeeded to develop photovoltaic energy today is Germany. Spain, Italy, France and Greece have also developed this system and step by step electricity consumers, aware of the importance of renewable energies, are switching to solar electricity receiving a compensation for their effort. Some other systems exist to develop renewables (green  certificates, tendering, tax credit) but they have not proved to be as efficient in particular when they depend from State budgets.

In the long run no more support will be required to help the development of photovoltaic electricity. With increasing sales leading to scale economies and efforts realised by producers to reduce the cost of photovoltaic products, it is expected that photovoltaic will be competitive with electricity prices in the South of Europe by 2015 and in most of Europe by 2020.

You are interested to know more about the situation in your country, the existing support to switch to green energy? You will find the most up-dated information about your country situation through energy agencies. A directory of European national, regional and local energy agencies is available on http://www.managenergy.net/emap/maphome.html