BP Solar - Photovoltaic Industry

Photovoltaic Industry

The international photovoltaic industry provides solar cells which convert light into electricity. Driven by concerns about global warming and energy security, and with technological advances reducing prices, the market is growing by about 25% each year. The composition of demand is also changing. In the 1980s and early 1990s, most photovoltaic modules provided remote area power supply or powered consumer products such as watches, calculators and toys, but from around 1995, industry efforts have focused increasingly on developing building-integrated photovoltaics and power plants for grid connected applications.