pv magazine: Mr. Daval, in one of SER-Soler's latest reports, the association speaks of the chance to create a major European solar manufacturer. Over the past years, there were rumors about creating this Airbus of solar between France and Germany. Now that with Macron’s election, the Franco-German axis seems revived, do you believe there are good chances we will see a European GW player? Given that Europe’s largest PV producer SolarWorld recently filed for insolvency, and that French module maker Sillia did the same thing a few weeks ago.
Daval: The creation of the conditions for the birth of this new major European module maker is my Marshall plan. SolarWorld and Sillia are not large industrial groups. My mission is to educate, communicate and mobilize the entire industry. There are very strong industrial groups in Europe with knowledge of what it means to make things, to produce goods. And these are my target. These are the people I want to talk to. Energy is one of the main challenges of this century, and we can’t leave to Asia the exclusivity to provide it. Energy, and solar, will be the driver of this century's growth, we can’t let someone else do it for us. We have to take over this power. This is not a matter of cost or bank power, this is a matter of keeping the balance right between the East, the West, the North and the South. As a region, we can’t be excluded from what will be the main driver of the world's economy.
Do you think this is going to be very difficult to achieve?
We are not talking about something light. We are talking about the challenge of this century. When module manufacturing moved to China, Germans thought they would have kept selling their production equipment to Chinese solar producers, but now we are seeing factories in China equipped with locally manufactured production lines. That move was, over the long run a wrong decision. So, what we have to do now as Europeans, is to correct this situation. In the car industry, there are big players in Europe, China and the United States. This should also occur in the solar industry. If we don't do that we will be dependent. We have been depending on oil coming from outside of Europe for a century, we can't continue to remain dependent for our energy supply.
French oil company Total is the largest shareholder of SunPower, EDF has its own module manufacturer, Photowatt. Enel has recently announced it intends to expand production capacity at its module factory in southern Italy. Moreover, French energy giant Engie has recently expanded into the solar sector. Do you believe that European utilities may be interested in creating this solar super entity?
No, when I say industrial groups I do not mean utilities. I respect all of the companies you named, but these are service companies. Delivering services and making goods, hardware, require completely different cultures. Therefore, what I am calling for is a gathering of good manufacturers, whose core business is to manufacture hardware.
Are there already concrete plans for a future giant PV module maker?
Not yet from my side, as I just started in my new position 6 months ago, but I want to take the opportunity of this interview to call in whoever wants to join in this challenging endeavour. And the plan is not solely focused on modules, but the complete supply chain.
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How big should this entity be in terms of production capacity?
Obviously, capacities now expressed in Gigawatts and smaller undertakings have proven that they are not able to compete.
Do you also believe that more European GW players could exist in the future?
If more means a lot, this is not sure, but all large global regions must have their (one two?) champion(s)
Could this new entity also come from the merging of existing European solar producers?
Sure, that would make a lot of sense, to start by putting together existing skills that today are very scattered.
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It is right- after the fall of the “Sunking” – Frank Asbeck of Solarworld Multi- Gigawatt factories may become a reality. But never on the basis of the existing small companies. They are not even able to work together in buying raw material nor in effective Lobbyworks. The time for that- based on today`s technology ended around 2008- but everyone thought to be the best and Solarworld open tried to hidern any idea of import duties at that time. They though to be clever in importing Modules from China, then labeled with Solarworld. And of course selling high price wafer e.g. to Canadian Solar. But only 2 years later no chinese needed Asbeck`s clever work any longer. All larger european cell and module manufacturer went bankcrupt being so clever to “not- unite”. Or – like Solarworld- believing that duty- barriers would stopp innovation and investments in new factories all around the world. Bad management killed Solarworld in the end.
In the US I don`t see any company in cell or module which as a chance to compete with Asia. No, including FirstSolar and Tesla`s dream factory. It`s all american show. All to expensive or based on technologies full of questions on reliability or enviromental matters. Billons burned, even more then in Europe. And Solarworld USA? Kept open and hoping for bizarr new import duties which may come with the strange Suniva file …
So- anything new (which I also hope to come) has to base on better cost structure or new technology – but high cost dreams of heterojunction are already dead before even born. Today. But maybe tomorrow things change and yes, technology must be in the hand of this new born company. Otherwise any equiment company will sell it all around the world. That`s pretty clear.
So- maybe Perowski? The race is still open and we need to remember that we are still in Ford`s Modell T era if we compare Solar on industry level (which started around 2006) with the automotive sector.
Let`s keep pushing European policy and larger industry companies to see Module and cells as a chance to grow agressivly if technology fits. Sucess is possible as we see e.g. with Wacker, Heraeus or SMA – but not if the CEO is buying fancy castles, Maserati or Rolls Royce paid by the european electricity consumer- as Solarworld did. The new approch has to be serious and no longer cowboy or Sunking style.
David Ricardo’s famous toy trade model from 1820 or thereabouts works just fine here. Europe and the USA have a comparative advantage in wind turbines and in PV manufacturing equipment. China has a comparative advantage in PV silicon and module manufacturing. So trade benefits both.
A solar panel is a long-lived asset needing no spare parts or secondary inputs. The purchaser has no dependence on the supplier once the module is delivered. Wasting money on a stupid protectionist autarkic project will merely disrupt the transition we all desperately need.
What capacity does it take to be an influential manufacturer for you Mr DAVAL?
I understand the remark for Sillia but for SolarWorld this seems unjustified. We have 1.5GWc of capacity up to 2GWp. Moreover, we are ranked Tier 1 in the world top 20 of Bloomberg.