The opening day of the 29th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference (EU PVSEC) in Amsterdam was marked by the news that the Netherlands has now reached 1 GW of cumulative installed PV capacity.
Henk Kamp, the Netherlands' minister of economic affairs, officially opened the show, which runs all week and is expected to attract more than 1,500 contributors from across 71 countries. The exhibition and conference are key dates on the global PV calendar, and this year attention will turn to technical progress in R&D, the impact of PV growth on the overall energy mix, the development of PERC technologies, and celebration of the Netherlands own domestic PV milestone.
"With the geo-political tension in the world today and Europe's urgent need to become more energy independent, PV can strongly contribute toward a more sustainable energy future in Europe," said conference general chairman and president of the Dutch Renewable Energy Federation, Teun P. Bokhoven.
Remarking on what is proving to be a pivotal period in Europe's future,
Bokhoven added that although Europes PV manufacturing capacity has decreased markedly over the past few years, there are plenty of new opportunities in European PV, including upstream manufacturing, storage and R&D. "The distribution and storage of solar energy will become as important as producing it," he said. "New challenges arise. Focus has been in the past on the production of solar energy. Today we need to look far more downstream and address the challenges of energy distribution and storage as well."
The opening of the 29th EU PVSEC was marked by a host of scientific presentations that focused on recent advances in research and new technologies. Over the course of the week, pv magazine will be reporting live from the exhibition and conference, bringing you breaking news, insightful interviews and ongoing impressions of the show as the week progresses.
For live twitter updates, follow @jonogifford
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