Berlin/Germany, Vilnius/Lithuania – The ambitious EU project SmartFlex is now underway. Its objective is to demonstrate how photovoltaic building elements can be individually designed and then manufactured on an industrial scale, all at the click of a button.

For the second year in a row and the second time in history, PV in 2012 was the number- one electricity source in the EU in terms of added installed capacity. With 16.7 GW connected to the grid , PV outscored gas and wind . The remarkable progress made by PV over the last four years ( it placed third among electricity sources for added capacity in 2009 , and second in 2010 ) should be compared with the stability of wind penetration and the fluctuating development of gas power plant commissioning in Europe .

Power generation capacities added in the EU 27 in 2012 (MW)