It has recently been calculated by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association that the rapidly decreasing costs of pv panels will soon lead to a cost parity between solar pv panels and traditional energy sources by the year 2020. Even better, the EPIA also estimate that energy produced by pv solar panels will cost the same amount of money as power produced from conventional means by as early as 2013 in many nations across the EU.

The EPIA study performed an extensive analysis of the French, German, Italian, Spanish and British energy markets before arriving at its 2020 date for total cost parity. The report points out that the cost of solar pv panels has decreased year on year for over 20 years and that this drop in price should continue to a further 50% by the close of the decade. The EPIA estimates that depending on the regulatory and market conditions PV solar electricity will be costing in the region of 0.08 and .018 Euros. What this would mean is solar power would be cheaper than the price for coal generated energy. Coal generated energy at this time costs about 0.09 Euros and that price is predicted to rise when the tighter regulations on carbon emissions kick in.

Finally, the report also predicts that Italy will be the first of the European nations to achieve this cost parity, and that other nations will need to extend their support of solar technologies if they are to keep up, as well as getting rid of market distortions. This referred to the Feed in Tariffs in place in countries like the UK which had proven to be successful but which were under threat thanks to the short-sightedness of the new conservative government. The report pointed out that in order for all energy production technologies to operate on a level playing field subsidies for coal, nuclear and gas would need to be reduced (or removed completely) too.