The European PV policy group - European best practice report

The EU project "PV Policy Group" aims to overcome political-legal barriers that are currently preventing investments in the majority of European PV markets: lack of political commitment and effective incentive schemes, insufficient and disparate monitoring systems and lack of co-operation between key actors in the definition of political action, especially on the transnational level. Eight national energy agencies of key "solar nations" (DE, FR, NL, AUT, SL, POR, GR, ES) have formed the "PV Policy Core Group" to define common action for the improvement and alignment of national support systems for PV. Three countries informally joined the Core Group later on: Italy, Sweden and Belgium. The Core Group focuses on policy issues and closely interacts with existing, more technology-oriented networks and complementary ALTENER-projects in the PV area. In a first step, a PV Policy Database and a European Best Practice Report on national support schemes, PV regulatory frameworks and monitoring systems were developed. They form a comprehensive and coherent basis for the PV Policy Core Group's assessment, exchange and action planning processes. The next project targets are the following: a shared assessment of the Current market situation in 8 countries with a focus on national support schemes and strategic options for improvement a clear commitment to national PV targets (installed MWp + x% of national electricity consumption) until 2007, 2010 and 2020 a joint European Action Plan to improve and align own activities for PV promotion in the participating countries until 2007, 2010 and 2020 a common European Position Paper to political decision-makers on both Community and national level on how to improve and coordinate the current support framework for PV investments until 2010 and 2020 The project is co-financed by the European Commission within the Altener Programme, EIE.