From 28 September to 2 October 2009 150 delegates of IEC Technical Committee (TC) 82 'Solar photovoltaic energy systems' held plenary and group meetings in Aix-les-Bains, France. The agenda was impressive with five individual Working Group (WG) meetings, a joint WG assembly, breakout sessions with particular tasks allotted to each WG, and a technical visit to the impressive National Institute of Solar Energy (INES), France.

IEC TC 82 Chairman Heinz Ossenbrink reminded the participants of some major statistics.

• TC 82 has internal IEC liaisons with: TC 8: Systems aspects for electrical energy supply, TC 21: Secondary cells and batteries, SC 21A: Secondary cells and batteries containing alkaline or other non-acid electrolytes, SC 32B: Low-voltage fuses, TC 64: Electrical installations and protection against electric shock, and TC 88: Wind turbines.
• In terms of photovoltaic (PV)/module production China leads the world. (That's excluding figures for Taiwan.)
• So far, in 2009, Europe has produced 12 TWh of electricity from PV, the equivalent to the 1970 figures for nuclear energy. It also has a directive to supply 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, of which 150 TWh (5%) is to come from PV. That would represent a compound annual growth rate of 35%.

Over 400 manufacturers in more than 50 countries are producing PV today with a reported turnover for modules in 2008 of in excess of USD 15 billion.

The 29 participating and 13 observer member countries, together with visiting guest participants from Cyprus and Israel, were witness to the global presence IEC TC 82 has and the role it plays in furthering renewable energy use worldwide.

There are huge challenges ahead of IEC TC 82 to provide clean energy of the future. Chairman Ossenbrink outlined some of the main challenges of IEC TC 82 work:

• to ensure the perennity of photovoltaic energy by providing solar modules with an increased lifetime energy production of up to 30 years, sufficient to ensure return on investment
• to reduce building integration costs, avoiding the trap of labour costs
• to make PV the safest source of electricity while building on the positive public perceptions of international standardisation
• to fully integrate and meet environmental standards by responding to expectations for clean energy
• to anticipate future needs by including work on:
  1. large-scale utility plants
  2. large concentrator systems
  3. flat-plate tracking systems
  4. improved electrical interfaces – particularly for safety
  5. a massive number of inverters
  6. new devices using thin films and organic cells.

Summarised IEC e-tech, December 2009.