The European Commission is formally endorsing a new Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance, with the aim of scaling up manufacturing technologies of innovative solar photovoltaic products and components. This will contribute to accelerating the deployment of solar power across the EU and improving the resilience of the EU’s energy system.
The Alliance is one of the concrete initiatives of the EU Solar Energy Strategy, adopted in May 2022 as part of the REPowerEU Plan, which will help the EU reach over 320 gigawatts (GW) of newly installed solar photovoltaic capacity by 2025 and almost 600 GW by 2030.
“To meet Europe’s renewable energy objectives — and avoid replacing a dependency on Russian fossil fuels with new dependencies — we are launching an industrial alliance for solar energy,” said Commissioner Thierry Breton, responsible for the Single Market. “With the alliance’s support, the EU could reach 30 GW of annual solar energy manufacturing capacity by 2025 across the full PV value chain. The alliance will foster an innovative and value-creating industry in Europe, which leads to job creation here. Europe’s solar industry already created more than 357,000 jobs. We have the potential to double these figures by the end of the decade.”
Once set up, the Alliance will bring together industrial actors, research institutes, consumer associations, NGOs and other stakeholders with an interest in the solar PV sector. It will deliver an action plan for the solar industry value chain in Europe and engage with the EU and Member States on issues ranging from research and innovation, technology, industrial supply chain, raw materials, access to finance, off-takers, international partnerships and global supply chain resilience, circularity, sustainability and skills. The launch of the Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance is expected by the end of the year. The Commission will work with EITInnoEnergy to establish it, building on the successful track record of the Batteries Alliance.
Brussels-based association SolarPower Europe has welcomed the new Alliance, saying that its members look forward to continuing their work through this new Initiative and re-shoring European solar manufacturing for good.
“The new Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance is a crucial initiative to strengthen the strategically critical European solar PV manufacturing sector,” said Dries Acke, Policy Director of SolarPower Europe. “Work on the new Alliance comes at a crucial time – in a globally competitive solar manufacturing landscape, diversifying the value chain and boosting European solar PV manufacturing will reinforce the European Commission’s energy security and solar deployment ambitions.”
