Recently E.ON opened the company’s first solar farm near the

southern French town of Le Lauzet. The farm occupies an area of more

than 20 hectares, has an installed capacity of 1 megawatt (MW), and

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could be expanded to 5 MW subject to the availability of a similarly

sized grid connection.

Germany utility E.ON AG (EOAN.XE) said Tuesday it agreed to acquire French photovoltaic company Société Conilhac Energies S.A.S.

Conilhac already worked successfully as developer of photovoltaic

projects in southern France and assembled a significant pipeline of

photovoltaic projects at various stages of maturity. The acquisition

will enhance E.ON’s capabilities to develop and implement photovoltaic

projects in an industrialized fashion. Between 2003 and 2008 the global

photovoltaic market grew from an annual installation rate of 600 MW to

around 5,600 MW, a compounded annual growth rate of no less than 55 per

cent. Today photovoltaic is still one of the most expensive renewable

technologies, but based on the current rate of technology development

and price reduction, wind parity is expected to be achieved in many

countries between 2015 and 2020.