China and European solar and storage leaders met in Düsseldorf, Germany, this week to call for deeper cross-border cooperation as both regions confront record PV additions, rising storage demand, and complex market dynamics.
Speakers at the China-EU Solar & Energy Storage Industries Dialogue 2025 highlighted the growing interdependence between Chinese manufacturing scale and European strengths in system integration and finance.
The cross-border industry forum – organized by EUPD Group and the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA) – also marked the launch of a new bilateral storage cooperation platform, providing warehousing, logistics, recycling, and technical support for Chinese companies operating in Europe, as well as European players seeking opportunities in China.
Ru Jialin, deputy director of international affairs at the CPIA, noted in an opening speech that China has entered the “terawatt era,” with cumulative PV installations surpassing 1,126 GW and “new-type storage” — defined as energy storage technologies other than pumped hydro — nearing 100 GW. The forum aimed to respond to that momentum by aligning Chinese and European players on scaling deployment and tackling the market, grid, and financing challenges of terawatt-level growth.
“We need collaboration,” Ru told pv magazine. “You can see in the past decades, in this industry good cooperation built good companies both in Europe and in China.”
Global Solar Council CEO Sonia Dunlop echoed these sentiments, noting that the solar-plus-storage sector is now a “half-trillion-dollar industry,” shaped by a decade of China-Europe cooperation that has driven PV costs down sharply. She warned that markets from California to Spain are already hitting negative prices without sufficient storage and urged governments to open flexibility and ancillary service markets to batteries to meet the Global Solar Council’s 1.5 TW global target by 2030.
Daniel Fuchs, chief customer officer at EUPD Group, told pv magazine that this type of collaboration is essential to balance supply and demand and navigate Europe’s diverse markets. “Our industry is shifting towards a supply strictly dominated by Chinese manufacturers,” he said. “With the event, we want to connect the dots between Europe and China.”
This focus on cooperation set the stage for a deeper look at regional storage trends. Europe is expected to play a central role in the expansion of PV-plus-storage solutions, with growing storage adoption underpinning rooftop solar growth and system integration.
Saif Islam, a senior consultant at EUPD Group, projected that Germany’s energy storage capacity could reach 29 GWh by 2029, driven by utility-scale systems, while Italy and the United Kingdom are expected to expand to 12 GWh and 16 GWh, respectively. Storage is increasingly the primary driver for rooftop PV adoption, with installers integrating EV chargers, smart home systems, and heat pumps alongside solar.
Fuchs emphasized the theme of collaboration, framing the event as a demonstration of how cross-border partnerships can deliver shared benefits. “Collaboration will create win-win-win situations,” he said. “This forum is about bridging markets and building connections between Europe and China.”
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