Solar PV experts predict the UK will follow in Europe's footsteps and experience significant market growth following the introduction of the new feed-in tariffs (FITs). According to a report published in May 2010 by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, Germany continues to dominate the European PV market with 68% market share, followed by Italy and the Czech Republic. Belgium and France both showed steady growth throughout 2009 whilst Spain's market appeared to slow because of the recession. And trailing at the bottom of the league table is the UK with installations totalling just 22 MW in 2009. However, in April, the UK Government introduced the new FITs to encourage households and businesses to install renewable energy systems such as solar PV. With this solid foundation, the UK solar PV market looks set for substantial growth.

Tioga Energy (www.tiogaenergy.com), a leading supplier of renewable energy services to commercial, government, and non-profit institutions, is using @RISK from Palisade to illustrate to customers in California the potential financial benefits of signing up to a solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Tioga provides project financing through its SurePathSM Solar (PPAs), and maintains and operates solar systems on behalf of its customers. Tioga's offering delivers predictably priced power and enables organisations to to both 'green' their operations and reduce energy costs. In order to illustrate the benefits of solar, Tioga needs to estimate future electricity prices and make comparisons by showing the savings from a new solar system. To forecast possible price increases, Tioga Energy inputs California's historical electricity rate data into a model developed using Palisade's risk analysis software, @RISK. This generates a probability distribution for electricity rate rises over the 20-year PPA period, which shows that there is a 25 percent likelihood that price increases will be less than 4.8 percent, and a 25 percent chance that rate rises would be more than 8.7 percent.