Pere Mir-Artigues and Pablo del Río have a 20-year experience in the economics and policy of renewable energy. Pablo del Río made a postdoctoral research stay on renewable energy support schemes at Riso National Laboratory, System Analysis Department in Denmark. Since 1999, he has actively participated in 6 European-funded projects on renewable energy promotion in the EU. He has more than 80 international publications in world-class journals. More than half of these publications are devoted to renewable energy, 5 of which are with Professor Pere Mir-Artigues. Both authors have recently published a report on solar PV electricity policy in Spain for the International Institute for Sustainable Development (Geneva). Pere Mir-Artigues made a recent stay (in 2013) at the Electricity Policy Research Group (Cambridge University). He has also experience in the public management of renewable electricity projects.

• Introduction.- Photovoltaic technologies.- Short history and recent facts of photovoltaic generation.- The value chain of the photovoltaic sector.- Principles for the public promoting photovoltaic generation.- Spending on research, development and demonstration.- Photovoltaic demand side-generation.- Public support schemes for the deployment of commercial plants.- Conclusions.