Peter F. Varadi - Böcker

The meteoric rise of the photovoltaic (PV) industry is an incredible story. In 2013, Google’s investments in PV systems totaled about half a billion dollars and Warren Buffet, one of the famous investors, invested $2.5 billion in the world’s largest PV system in California. These gigantic investments by major financial players were made only 40 years after the first two terrestrial PV companies, Solarex and Solar Power Corporation, were formed in the USA. Back in 1973, the two companies employed 20 people and produced only 500 watts of PV power. Now, just 40 years later, over a million people work in the PV industry. The worldwide capacity of operating PV electric generators equals the capacity of about 25 nuclear power plants. The PV industry is growing at an annual rate of 30 percent, equivalent to about five new nuclear power plants per year. Today, solar electricity is a significant supplier of electricity needs, to the extent that PV is forcing the restructuring of 100-year-old electric power utilities. This book describes how this happened and what lies ahead for PV power generation.

The meteoric rise of the photovoltaic (PV) industry is an incredible story. In 2013, Google’s investments in PV systems totaled about half a billion dollars and Warren Buffet, one of the famous investors, invested $2.5 billion in the world’s largest PV system in California. These gigantic investments by major financial players were made only 40 years after the first two terrestrial PV companies, Solarex and Solar Power Corporation, were formed in the USA. Back in 1973, the two companies employed 20 people and produced only 500 watts of PV power. Now, just 40 years later, over a million people work in the PV industry. The worldwide capacity of operating PV electric generators equals the capacity of about 25 nuclear power plants. The PV industry is growing at an annual rate of 30 percent, equivalent to about five new nuclear power plants per year. Today, solar electricity is a significant supplier of electricity needs, to the extent that PV is forcing the restructuring of 100-year-old electric power utilities. This book describes how this happened and what lies ahead for PV power generation.

The meteoric expansion of the solar (PV) industry resulted from an incredible reduction in the prices of PV systems—first described in the author’s earlier book Sun above the Horizon. It began early in the new century and continued in the following decade with an extraordinary upswing. As a result, by the end of 2016, the worldwide PV operational power capacity grew to some 300 GW. Most of this increased capacity, 250 GW, was installed during the years 2010–2016. Suddenly PV started to affect the traditional generation of electricity and helped reduce carbon emissions and other environmental impacts. This book describes how this happened. Three practically unlimited new PV markets—residential, commercial, and utility scale—materialized, along with the new PV-oriented financial systems needed to provide the required gargantuan-scale capital. This book also highlights the increasing demand for and the corresponding increased supply of PV cells and modules on four continents and the impact of this PV breakthrough on our lives and future. To present this unparalleled story of societal transformation, the author was helped by the contributions of top experts Wolfgang Palz, Michael Eckhart, Allan Hoffman, Paula Mints, Bill Rever, and John Wohlgemuth.