Survey of photovoltaic industry and policy in Germany and China

Photovoltaic (PV) technologies have demonstrated significant price reductions, but large-scale global application of PV requires further technology improvements and cost reductions along the value chain. We survey policies in Germany and China and the industrial actors they can encourage to pursue innovation, including deployment support, investment support for manufacturing plants and R&D support measures. While deployment support has been successful, investment support for manufacturing in these nations has not been sufficiently tied to innovation incentives, and R&D support has been comparatively weak. The paper concludes with a discussion of the opportunities for global policy coordination.

► Describes policies applied to support PV technology and characterizes the technical potential and industry structure in Germany and China.
► Identifies opportunities to enhance innovation incentives—to contribute to 50% further cost reductions required for large scale application.
► Discusses synergies of technology policy in both countries by identifying and pursuing shared environmental and technology objectives.