Over five rainy days in Bilbao this week, scientists and industry figures from across the renewable energy field got together for high level discussion of where solar stands, the challenges to maintaining high installation numbers and a growing share of the energy mix in Europe and beyond, and the new innovations making from research and development into commercial operations.
pv magazine attended many of the conference sessions and had the chance to speak with several key figures from the solar industry and research community. And here I’ll sum up a few key takeaways from the week.
It’s all political
In earlier years, discussions at EU PVSEC have focused on technology first and foremost. This year though, it was clear from the start that solar’s political looms larger than usual in the minds of many.
In one of the first speeches on Monday morning, Becquerel Institute’s Gaëtan Masson warned that solar today risks moving from “a policy driven to a policy constrained market”, as negative sentiment towards takes hold in some regions.
Many other speakers spoke of the need for policy interventions to ensure grid infrastructure and energy storage can keep up with solar’s growth and cover larger regions and longer periods with renewable energy output. And the increasing need for representatives to “preach to the unconverted” and work to convince political leaders and the public of the benefits of solar and that the investments our industry still needs will pay off before long.
Manufacturing is (still) a must for Europe
European PV manufacturing has been a sad story in recent times, and the discussion had faded from the minds of many.
But this week saw renewed calls for states and the European Union to reexamine their position and implement the kind of policy that could bring back large-scale PV factories to Europe and reduce the region’s reliance on imports.
The challenge this entails is well outlined in a report published by Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems and SolarPower Europe, that was presented during EU PVSEC. The report found that higher costs fore equipment, labor, energy, and facilities mean that large-scale systems using European made modules would produce electricity at a cost 14.5% higher than an equivalent system with Chinese-made components.
Appropriate support from the policy side could rapidly close that gap. And there was plenty of debate over the exact shape that support should take, though many point to India as a successful example that Europe could emulate, and most agree that support with the operations phase of a large-scale factory, as well as with the initial investment in building one out, will be needed to reach a competitive cost structure producing modules in Europe.
Many also voiced frustrations with the lack of action from the EU in this area. Current plans such as the Net Zero Industry Act may bring some diversification, but will not be enough for a return to large-scale manufacturing.
This was well outlined by statements from Chiara Landrò, responsible for public affairs at Italian energy company Enel, regarding its 3 GW cell and module factory in Sicily. This project has received more than €200 million in EU investment support to date, and Landrò noted during a panel discussion that while the company expects the facility to be fully ramped up by the end of 2025, it would likely need further support to be commercially viable. “Market conditions have changed since 2022,” Landrò told the audience.
AI is here
Machine learning processes have long been important to scientists with enormous amounts of data to process. At this year’s conference though, several have demonstrated further steps into the use of artificial intelligence in their work.
Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin’s Klaus Jäger demonstrated use of a large language model to optimize and simulate layers in a solar device. Becquerel Institute’s David Moser noted his expectation that solar operations and maintenance will be 60-80% automated by 2030. He shared a clear example of what he called “generative AI in action,” with a demonstration of a fault detection model also using a large language model to identify “symptoms” of power loss in a system and automatically implement a solution.
Perovskites need collaboration
The week also saw a wealth of presentations regarding perovskites and tandem cell technology, including commercial progress from the industry side with presentations from silicon manufacturer Q Cells and Chinese perovskite specialist Microquanta showing large-scale processing techniques.
It’s clear though that many different materials, techniques and approaches are still being investigated under the perovskites umbrella, and there is a growing need to ensure all are “speaking the same language” when it comes to results, and particularly in demonstrating reliability.
Progress on this was noted in a talk from ISC Konstanz’s Daniel Tune, who presented a “Consensus statement” developed with widespread participation from industry and researchers outlining the type of testing all should be doing to demonstrate reliability in the field. And whatever tests are carried out, it’s increasingly clear that there is no substitute for actual outdoor testing to validate these tests.
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