EuropeThe European Solar PV Industry Alliance (ESIA) recently announced that Europe can exceed the EU's 30 GW annual PV manufacturing capacity goal with proper policy support by 2025. The alliance also elaborated that Europe has the potential to surpass the target of 30 GW in polysilicon production, ingot manufacturing, cell manufacturing, and module manufacturing, respectively.
These projections come as the ESIA revealed a comprehensive action plan for its working groups. The action plan brings together expertise from over 120 organizations across 17 countries within Europe's solar PV value chain to progress work in four key areas: non-pricing criteria, supply chain challenges, financial instruments, and training and skills.
The action plan aims to enhance the competitiveness of the international supply chain by focusing on factors such as energy costs, sustainability, recycling and traceability. An analysis was conducted to bridge the gap between the operating and capital expenses (OpEx and CapEx) of the European PV value chain and those in other regions around the world. And the results will be used to explore possible financial instruments to stimulate growth.
The plan also proposes non-pricing criteria to bring forward best-in-class solar products with strong environmental, social and governance credentials. Additionally, it addresses various gaps in the value chain, emphasizes recyclability, highlights the importance of training and education, boosts attractiveness and awareness, and enhances mobility to ensure sufficient availability of talent.
The ESIA was established in December last year by the European Commission, with EIT InnoEnergy as Secretariat, joined by SolarPower Europe and the European Solar Manufacturing Council on the alliance's Steering Committee.
As set out in the Net-Zero Industry Act, our goal is to overcome regulatory obstacles that hinder the expansion of net-zero technologies, with solar PV being a vital component, ultimately enhancing the EU's energy resilience and competitiveness.
—commented Kerstin Jorna, Director-General of the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission.
Since the establishment, the Commission and the alliance have worked closely together to improve the policy framework to fuel solar growth constantly.
Recent measures aim to increase investment certainty by harmonizing permitting processes for both large and small-scale PV manufacturing facilities across the internal market. Furthermore, the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework have been updated to complement the upcoming Net-Zero Industry Act, allowing governments to provide support for investments throughout the net-zero supply chains.
