Abstract

Renewable energy generation has experienced consistent growth in the last two decades, motivated by the concerns of climate change and high oil prices, and supported by renewable energy legislation and incentives, with a close to $150 billion investment in 2010. Solar photovoltaic is one of the fastest growing energy technologies, with an average annual growth of about 40% in the past decade. The 2.6GW installed capacity in 2009 implies an increase of more than 50% compared to the previous year and has lead to a total capacity of 7.8GW photovoltaic power worldwide (Figure.1). Similarly high grow rate has been registered in the past few decades for the wind power industry as well, with an approximately 30% increase in 2009 [13].