Task 1 continuously researches the drivers and status of PV development both in IEA PVPS countries and globally. It provides at least two reports or special events annually, highlighting the key developments in the PV sector.
In 2025 T1 focused on supporting robust PV market and industry intelligence reporting while addressing the emerging economic and operational constraints in high PV penetration regions.
System integration in countries with mature deployment and increasingly high penetrations was a focal point, notably grid capacity, flexibility needs, curtailment drivers, negative price episodes, and the role of decentralised and utility scale storage and demand side measures as enabling tools rather than standalone objectives. Exchanges on the increasing politicisation of PV deployment, supply chain and manufacturing positioning, and the need for communication, repositories, and stakeholder targeted outputs that translate technical evidence into actionable policy and regulatory insight were also important.
In 2025, Task 1 produced several reports that highlighted key developments in the PV sector.
A Snapshot of Global PV Report
The Snapshot of Global PV report is compiled from the preliminary market development information provided annually by all countries participating in the IEA PVPS Programme. Published in April, the Snapshot report provides a first sound estimate of the prior year’s PV market. Task 1 members collect and share data in the report, supplying an early look at the previous year’s market developments and policy drivers. The 2025 report highlighted the increasing impact of grid congestion and oversupply at specific moments leading to curtailment, as well as the continued over-capacity in manufacturing.
Trends in Photovoltaic Applications Report
Compiled from data collected for the annual National Survey Reports (NSR; below) and information supplied by a worldwide network of market and industry experts, the Trends in Photovoltaic Applications report presents a broad view of the current status and trends relating to the development of PV globally. It provides accurate information on the evolution of the PV market and the industry value chain, with a clear focus on support policies and the business environment, whilst also bringing an in-depth analysis of the drivers and factors behind PV market development and an analysis of the global PV market and industry.
Funded by the IEA PVPS Programme, it is prepared by a small editorial group within Task 1 and is communicated by Task 1 participants to their identified national target audiences, at selected conferences and meetings and can be downloaded from the IEA-PVPS website with all previous editions. A summary is published in PV Magazine, and its results are disseminated widely in industry media.
National Survey Reports
A key component of the collaborative work carried out within the PVPS Programme, the National Survey Reports (NSR) provide a detailed look into what has happened in the specific country over the year. Written (and funded) by the country teams, the reports build on Task 1 discussions on effective data collection across the range of subjects addressed, from national market frameworks, public budgets, the industry value chain, prices, economic benefits, new initiatives including financing and electricity utility interests. Nine reports covering 2024 were published on the www.iea-pvps.org website over the 2nd semester, with the first becoming available from July.
Meetings in Canada & Berlin
Task 1 meetings were held in June (Montreal) and October (Berlin). At each of these meetings, members shared the current market status and exchanged on the impact of increasing penetration in member countries and wider. Fruitful discussions with local stakeholders in each city highlighted transferable learnings. In particular, discussion with T15 members in Montreal centered on the different ways BIPV and other PV markets evolve, and the resulting impacts on building envelope, safety, reliability and insurance expectations. Local stakeholders discovered the similarities in climatic and energy mixes/grid architectures in Canada and Nordic countries, with interest in follow up exchanges to build on lessons learnt. In Berlin, focal subjects included the growing PV/storage nexus and evolving data harmonisation. Core technical themes in the local stakeholders workshop included curtailment dynamics, negative prices, grid capacity constraints, ramping and market time step effects, controllability requirements for distributed PV, and emerging ancillary service and inertia market arrangements; a follow-up meeting with a member of parliament extended discussion to wider social acceptability issues.
Dissemination Events
A webinar to present the Snapshot findings was held in April 2025, and results were presentation at IEEE PVSEC-53 in Canada in June. The main findings of the Trends in PV Applications were presented at EUPVSEC in September (Spain), followed by a webinar in October 2025. A parallel event was held at EUPVSEC to bring together industry and research perspectives on the impact of grid congestion, curtailment and negative prices on the current and future development of PV.
Task 1 aims at following the evolution of the PV development, analyzing its drivers and supporting policies. It aims at advising the PVPS stakeholders about the most important developments in the program countries and broadly. It focuses on facts, accurate numbers and verifiable information in order to give the best possible image of the diversity of PV support schemes in regulatory environment around the globe.
Task 1 aims at serving as the Think Tank of the PVPS programme, providing the Executive Committee and dedicated Tasks with ideas and suggestions on how to improve the research content of the PVPS programme.
Task 1 aims at communicating about the main findings of the PVPS programme through the most adequate communication channels.
In order to gather adequate information and to disseminate the results of research within Task 1, cooperation with external stakeholders remains a cornerstone of the PVPS programme.
