ABSTRACT
It was obvious by that time that there was a big need for using PV, but that market growth based on those needs would result “only” in a yearly 12-20 percent steady increase in production (which would be a dream for any industry), but would not achieve a quantum jump, where mass production would happen in a span of only a few years.The 1972 report, Solar Energy as a National Energy Resource (described in Chapter 3), envisioned that the utilization of PV should be for “buildings, central ground stations, and central space stations.” By 1989, it was obvious that the idea of a “central space stations” was not feasible. The idea of a “central ground station” to achieve mass production of PV was, using an American expression, a “catch 22.” It certainly would result in mass production, but to set up a central ground station one would already need mass production to yield inexpensive, close to grid parity PV systems. On the other hand, to utilize PV for buildings could be a possibility to wind up with mass production. This could be one of the reasons that the German, Japanese, and US Governments initiated solar roof programs. The US Government started with demonstration projects, and these demo houses were all successful. Interestingly the person who first picked up the idea in 1986, to try to mass produce PV to install the modules on the roofs of houses, was a young Swiss entrepreneur, Markus Real (Fig. 31.1).
