The Global Community for Sustainable Energy Professionals
The website on PV Systems of the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows several interesting statistics comparing figures between countries worldwide. Countries that have national development programmes, such as Germany with the 100.000 Roofs Programme, and Japan with the Residential PV System Dissimination Programme, stand out. Their rates of installed PV power per capita largely exceed those of other countries, and a big majority of the PV systems in these countries are grid-coupled. In countries without development programmes (Norway, Sweden, Israel, Portugal), installed power per capita is much lower, and systems tend to be domestic and off-grid. This proves that growth of PV power in those countries still relies on the private initiatives of environment-minded citizens. A special case is Australia, where considerable growth figures for PV power are combined with a high percentage of off-grid systems. The Australian Renewable Remote Power Generation Programme puts focus on replacement of diesel engines in remote areas, mainly for water pumps. Nearly 60% of the PV power in Australia is off-grid and non-domestic.
