 In September 2008, the European photovoltaics industry set the vision of covering
up to 12% of the total EU electricity demand with photovoltaic power by 2020.
This highly ambitious target can of course only be achieved if an enduring and
sustainable support from politics and regulation will be assured and infrastructural
limitations will be lifted agrees Pia Knüwer, who is responsible for Marketing and
Sales at B&W Energy GmbH & Co.KG, a leader in the field of the planning and
installation of photovoltaics systems in Germany. "In Germany the government
makes a very positive contribution to stimulating investment in solar energy and
we're hopeful that this example will be copied Europe-wide."
Ms. Knüwer explains that the
predecessor company to B&W Energy
was founded in 1998 by Josef Busch and
Anton Wissing in Heiden, in the
Munsterland region, with a focus on
wind energy. In 2003 the company
diversified to add a photovoltaics
business, and that business was given
the name B&W Energy. The latter soon
became the leading supplier of
photovoltaics systems in the
Munsterland region and subsequently
expanded nationwide. Ms. Knüwer
points out that when Mr. Wissing
decided to give B&W Energy his
undivided attention, in 2008, that really
gave the business a boost. The company
now employs around 130 people and has
a nationwide distribution, sales, and
subcontractor network. The north of
Germany is served through an office in
Bremerhaven. Eighty B&W engineers are
engaged in the planning and installation
of photovoltaics systems across
Germany. Ms. Knüwer says that
increasing German sales is currently a
top priority for them but they are also
considering European expansion."That's still in the early stages however.
We're still thinking about whether it's a
commercially viable option for us and
about how we would go about building
an international business."
 Solar energy is hot in Europe (excuse
the pun). Just to make clear:
'photovoltaic' is a marriage of two
words: 'photo', from Greek roots,
meaning light, and 'voltaic', from 'volt',
which is the unit used to measure
electric potential at a given point.
Photovoltaic systems use cells to
convert solar radiation into electricity.
The cell consists of one or two layers of
a semi-conducting material. When light
shines on the cell it creates an electric
field across the layers, causing
electricity to flow. The greater the
intensity of the light, the greater the
flow of electricity is. The most common
semi conductor material used in
photovoltaic cells is silicon, an element most commonly found in sand. There is
no limitation to its availability as a raw
material; silicon is the second most
abundant material in the earth's mass.
A photovoltaic system therefore does
not need bright sunlight in order to
operate. It can also generate electricity
on cloudy days. The most important
feature of solar PV systems however, is
that there are no emissions of carbon
dioxide - the main gas responsible for
global climate change - during their
operation. Although indirect emissions
of CO2 occur at other stages of the
lifecycle, these are significantly lower
than the avoided emissions. PV does
not involve any other polluting
emissions or the type of environmental
safety concerns associated with
conventional generation technologies.
There is no pollution in the form of
exhaust fumes or noise.
According to the European Photovoltaic
Industry Association, the PV industry
continues to perform well despite the
global economic downturn. During
2009, the global installed capacity of
photovoltaic installations grew by over
7,000 MW reaching a total amount of
some 22,000 MW. For the current year,
the prospects are even more bullish: the
strong growth in Germany, Italy, France,
Czech Republic and Greece as well as
promising signals from the Asian and the
North American markets will most
probably propel global market growth to
over 10,000 MW of new photovoltaic
installations in 2010.
It's no surprise then that the people of
B&W Energy are optimistic about their
growth potential, initially in their
domestic market, and perhaps in the
longer term across Europe. Ms. Kluwer
says they supply mostly roof-topphotovoltaic installations to private
home owners, factories and agricultural
businesses. Interesting to note in that
regard is that the "Feed-in Law" in
Germany permits customers to receive
preferential tariffs for solar generated
electricity depending on the nature and
size of the installation. Under the new
tariff structure introduced in 2004, the
base level of compensation for groundmounted
systems can be up to 45.7
euro cents/kWh. PV installations on
buildings receive higher rates of up to
57.4 euro cents/kWh. Perhaps as a
result, Germany now is one of the
world's top photovoltaics (PV)
installers, with a solar PV capacity in
2009 of 8,877 megawatts (MW), and
6,200 GWh of electricity generated in
2009, according to the German
government. Solar power now meets
about 1.1 percent of Germany's
electricity demand; a share that some
market analysts expect could reach 25
percent by 2050. "Incentives such as
the Feed-in-Law make solar energy
economically viable for both private
and commercial use even when raw
materials are scarce," says Ms. Knüwer.
"It would be great if other Europeancountries would follow the German
example. If they did, international
expansion would become an interesting
option for B&W Energy."
She adds that their main competitive
advantage is their focus on quality. "We
plan and install solar systems, and buy
components only of the highest quality,
and certified to German standards. As we
are manufacturer-independent we can
integrate components to meet the
customer's specific requirements. That is
always our main objective: to get the
best out of photovoltaics for our
customers."
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