Forcasts for the photovoltaic cell (PV) market in Europe, the USA and Japan all predict that the amount of electricity generated by PV is set to rise over the next five years.
This market has attracted certain industrial mineral suppliers which have sensed an opportunity for growth in this sector (see panel p.52).
However, solar electricity is one of the most expensive power sources, and is still largely dependent on supportive government tax breaks and schemes to make it economically attractive.
Ten years ago, Japan was the leading producer and market for PV, but around five years ago, Europe overtook Japan to become the leading market.
By 2008, Europe accounted for over 80% of the 5.6GW global PV market. Spain and Germany are the two leading consuming countries with markets of 2,511MW and 1,500MW respectively. In 2008, the Spanish market was over ten times the size of the Japanese...