Chairman's message
Dear Delegate,
It is my privilege and honour to invite you to participate in the 5th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, which will be held in Valencia, Spain.
This World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion will bring together the three most important global scientific and strategic PV Conferences: the 25th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition, the 36th US IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference and the 20th Asia/Pacific PV Science and Engineering Conference. This unique PV solar gathering will constitute the world’s leading science-to-science, business-to-business and science-to-industry forum for the global PV Solar sector.
Certainly 2010 is a very decisive year for Photovoltaic Solar Energy in Europe. The European Union has set the goal of providing 20% of its energy consumption using renewable sources by the end of this decade. This would translate into more than 35% of renewable electricity. Whether PV will reach a 3%, 5% or even 12% share will be influenced by the decisions of the Member States on the implementation of their renewable energy action plans, which are in preparation till 2010, just before the Conference takes place. Similar ambitious plans are being brought forward in the US, Japan, China and India, ensuring global growth rates for PV in the coming years.
Photovoltaic electricity has recently seen a considerable drop in prices. This has been spurred also by world-wide competition and continued successes in research and development. The „Solar Europe Industry Initiative“, brought forward within the European Commission‘s Strategic Energy Technology Plan, will speed up the process of getting closer to grid-parity within the next decade.
I am confident that this 5th World Conference will provide the best forum to present the latest progress in solar cell development and manufacturing. The visions of how massive deployment of photovoltaic systems will look in 10 years time will be outlined. Further, the various global programmes will be confronted.
My wish is for this event to foster much stronger joint research on a global scale, for example in the spirit of recent EU-US and EU-Japan Co-operation agreements. Moreover, such opportunities should be explored and discussed during this Conference.
I am sure that you will find it worthwhile to submit your contribution to the Conference Programme, and I thank you in advance for being part of this event where the global PV community will meet and move forward.
Dr. Giovanni Federigo De Santi
Director, Institute for Energy (IE)
JRC - European Commission
Conference General Chairman | 
