The German PV market may still be the biggest in the world, but as its feed-in tariffs come down, so have its sales  (see PI 12/2007,p.32). The result is that many of those eyes that once lusted for solar profits by installing on German soil and roofs have started to shift their gazes southward to sunnier Spain and Italy. This is where decent PV feed-in tariffs - and solar insulation - are beginning to attract an ever-increasing number of investors, thus giving the countris' respective manufacturers something to smile about. Especially in Spain, a country that was traditionally bigger in cell and module production than Germany until the word's first national PV feed-in tariff helped spur a domestic market for Germany's homegrown manufacturers.

  Simply put, Spanish PV companies, while still playing catch up with their German counterparts, are thriving and growing as rarely as before. The jury is still out. Nevertheless, while the Italian verdict won't be clear until the end of the year, even there the signs are looking good that the domestic PV manufacturing sector could soon reach a mid-level prominence in the world of solar production.

  That is why PHOTON International has decided to concentrate on the production in 2007 and the outlook for 2008 in these southern markets for this survey. 

                         Digested from "PHOTO International"08-1