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► NEW : see all _kt75 | articles at a glance in the _news database   -- a _kt75 | reprint   Tweet _progress | M replaces _kt75 | mirror. visit: http://progress-m.blogspot.com . ready: 01.07.2015. close ✕ The year 2012 was another historic one for solar photovoltaic (PV) technology, which has experienced remarkable growth over the past decade and is on the way to becoming a mature and mainstream source of electricity. The world’s cumulative PV capacity surpassed the impressive 100-gigawatt (GW) installed electrical power mark, achieving just over 102 GW. This capacity is capable of producing as much annual electrical energy as 16 coal power plants or nuclear reactors of 1 GW each. Each year these PV installations save more than 53 million tons of CO2. Remarkably, even during a time of economic crisis, an estimated 31 GW of new PV capacity was commissioned around the world in 2012 – roughly the same as in the record-setting year of 2011. But even if the he...