The Photovoltaic shows a notable potential concerning possible application areas and contribution to the electricity supply needs. The theoretical potential is enormous, the solar radiation energy exceeds by thousandfold the present world energy consumption.

The solar electricity technical potential depends on different factors, in particular on the available surface and on the photovoltaic system efficiency of the offer side (production potential) and of the electricity grid and storage capacities on the demand side (final energy potential). With the currently available solar electricity technologies the Swiss building park, solar-architectural suitable roof and facade areas, has a potential comparable to one-third of the Swiss electricity consumption. This would already surpass what could generally be produced by the existing distribution electricity network and storage capacity; as a rule this could be seen as reaching an upper limit of 10 to 20%.

From a technical viewpoint, the solar power potential could be even greater, thanks to adapted structures and future technologies. Such effective realized / realizable Potential is fundamentally influenced by economic and energy political factors.