Nontechnical barriers to the commercialisation of PV in developing countries

PV is quoted as being a mature technology, one which is proven technically and economically for stand-alone applications in areas remote from the grid. There are many thousands of working examples of PV systems in developing countries. However, this is minute compared to the potential market size. Research has highlighted a number of nontechnical barriers which have adversely affected the market development for PV, particularly for stand-alone systems in developing countries. This paper discusses these institutional barriers and the financial constraints in developing countries, and ways in which they could be removed to allow for the large-scale commercial deployment of PV systems.