On the Cost of Photovoltaic Electricity for Small Residential Plants in the European Union

The substantial decrease in the cost of photovoltaic panels has made this renewable source of energy competitive with respect to conventional sources. As a result grid parity seems now within reach in many member states of the European Union. This paper tries to make an assessment of the actual cost of photovoltaic electricity in each country of the Union using the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) as the benchmark to compare with the actual price of electric energy. It is found that nowadays grid parity is effectively an issue in several different countries of the Union and that suitable supporting measures, apart from the Feed-In Tariff (FIT), could be used to further support the diffusion of this type of energy.