Abu Dhabi, January 16: More than 160 of the world’s largest solar power companies will take part in the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) to be held here this week, exhibiting their latest products and technologies.
Solar energy will, in fact, be covered in-depth during the Summit’s conferences, with one session dedicated entirely to the subject and covering topics such as advanced solar technologies, materials and costs.
Among the session’s speakers will be Eicke Weber, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Katrina Landis, group vice-president of BP Alternative Energy and Shi Zhengrong, founder and CEO of Suntech Power.
Global growth in the photovoltaics (converters of sunlight into electricity) market is forecast to reach 46 per cent in 2010, according to a report recently published by Bank Sarasin, under the title ‘Solar industry 2009: the first green shoots of recovery’.
Another report by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association and Greenpeace, published in 2006, revealed that solar energy could generate 2.5 per cent of the world’s electricity by 2025.
This means that enough solar power would be produced globally to satisfy the power needs of 20 per cent of the entire European Union. Put another way, this would represent the annual output from 150 coal-fired power plants. The report further went on to say that this could rise to 16 per cent in 2040.
–Agencies