Abstract
This study aimed to examine the financing of photovoltaics research and development by analyzing funding from public (European Union and national budgets) and private sources (enterprises), Strategic Energy Technology Plan participating countries being the main focus (European Union Member States plus Norway and Turkey). In the coming years, photovoltaics are expected to heavily contribute towards the achievement of audacious climate and energy objectives. Continuous monitoring of the effects is of great importance to assess a course of action taken at such a large scale. It will be revealed that the distribution of funding provided by national budgets highly concentrates on a few Member States, which is part of a general trend in Research and Development within Europe. Approximately 85% of the current European investment provided by the EU budget is administered in the framework of the Horizon 2020 (2014–2020) program; private investment behaves differently. The European photovoltaics manufacturing market has been obliterated by low-budget imported goods. A major characteristic is that the remaining companies are almost exclusively privately held. Gathering data has consequently been a challenge, as opposed to the readily available public datasets.
Highlights
Since the industrial revolution, the use of fossil fuels boomed, becoming more and more widespread [1]
It was previously mentioned that not all European Union (EU) Member States (MS) are part of the International Energy Agency (IEA) (Norway and Turkey are members). This limitation was important because it means that not all relevant research and development (R&D) funding was taken into consideration
Another issue was that some of the countries that provide information to the IEA were not always able to provide a concise breakdown of the allocation of funds according to technology type, generating a gap in data [18]
Summary
The use of fossil fuels boomed, becoming more and more widespread [1]. Low prices and ample availability of natural resources fostered a period of spectacular economic growth after World War II. The oil embargos imposed during the 1970s had an immediate upwards effect on oil prices around the world [2]. Energy provision became a matter of national security and affected countries began working on solutions, exploring alternative plans. In the 1970s, the consciousness of environmental problems, including air pollution, oil slicks, and to some extent rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, and their potentially detrimental impact on human health, increased. It resulted in a range of multilateral environmental agreements and into the first
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