The attendance at the conference is for free and you can register here.
The annual ETIP-PV conference in Brussels comes at an important time for the ETIP PV, as they recently launched the European Partnership for Innovation in Photovoltaics (EUPI-PV) in collaboration with the European Commission, and published an update to their Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for PV (SRIA-PV).
On the one hand, the EUPI-PV is a public-private co-partnership and a major step towards building a resilient and integrated PV value chain in Europe. It aims to accelerate solar PV research and innovation at scale by coordinating efforts across industry and research centres, supporting the resilience and competitiveness of the European PV value chain, and fostering leadership in PV innovation.
The SRIA-PV, on the other hand, provides a guidance for both the European PV research and industry community, as it has strategically identified five core challenges and opportunities for the European R&I, with the end goal to support a thriving European industry. Publishing the SRIA has been an ongoing task for ETIP-PV for many years, as PV Magazine has previously reported. With the launch of the EUPI-PV, ETIP-PV currently developing a SRIA specifically tailored for the partnership, which will also outline key priorities for the European R&D in PV. This EUPI-PV-specific SRIA is not yet published.
The work ETIP-PV is conducting is an alignment with various policy regulations presented by the European Commission, including, but not limited to the Green Industrial Deal, RePOWER EU, and the European Solar Charter. While many of these do not directly refer to R&I, they do target rapid PV deployment to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and achieve a higher renewable energy share by 2030.
For instance, since the launch of RePOWER EU, the European Union and the European Commission have pledged to diminish the dependence on the Russian gas and invest 210 billion € by 2027 to save around 50 bcm of gas imports. Out of these, more than half (113 bil €) are planned for a combined renewable (86 bil €) and hydrogen infrastructure (27 bil €). Moreover, the EU solar energy strategy, published as part of REPowerEU, aims for a massive increase in PV capacity, with targets of over 320 GW by 2025 and almost 720 GWdc by 2030, accompanied with 30 GW of PV manufacturing capacity across the entire value chain.
Thus, Europe has taken the stand that PV is no longer seen only as a technology to reduce green-gases emissions, but also a technology providing energy resilience and independence. This stance is in alignment with the global trend of PV being the fastest growing and cheapest electricity source almost on a global scale. For instance, in 2023, 78% of the newly-installed global renewable capacity was solar PV, as reported by SolarPower Europe in their Global Market Outlook.
Nevertheless, while deployment (of imported PV modules) and up to an extent, investments from both the public and private sector have seen positive trend in the EU, the question whether Europe can meet its local-manufacturing targets remains open.
In a report from March, 2024 the European Solar PV Industry Alliance (ESIA) provided an in-depth outlook on the current state of the EU photovoltaic industry, focusing on equipment, materials, and consumables along the PV supply chain. The report identified both equipment and raw materials & consumables hurdles, especially when it came to ingots and diamond wires. Consequently, the current market conditions for equipment manufacturers in Europe are unfavourable due to the shortage of domestic ingot-wafer producers.
ESIA then discussed that Europe should ideally aim to: 1. Create competitiveness by establishing a level playing field regarding social and environmental standards, as well as R&D funding; 2. Establish domestic efficient gigawatt-level PV production by supporting the best available technologies & building a strong platform that will allow European companies to compete on all levels; 3. Ensure governmental funding support, both for CAPEX and OPEX; and 4. Promote collaboration and assistance to domestic companies, instead of resorting to tariffs.
However, as PV is an ever-evolving industry, with significant technological advancements and lab-to-fab transfers, it is unclear whether these support mechanisms are still entirely valid or sufficient. For instance, in 2022 we were discussing the potential of TopCON substituting PERC on the market, while now – in less than three years – TopCON is indeed dominating almost entirely the newly-manufactured module capacity. And this is not the end, as hybrid or stand-alone IBC is demonstrating significant growth in efficiency (27.81%), as reported by LONGi.
Beyond Si, the global PV industry is also competing over tandem solar cells, in particular with Si and perovskite. While LONGi has announced a new world record efficiency on a cell’s scale (34.85%), OxfordPV has successfully exported its perovskite solar technology to the US, marking the first commercial deployment of perovskite tandem solar panels worldwide. Thus, Europe is strongly supporting its R&I scene, and in particular the development of novel PV technologies, with the strategic goal that these can meet some of Europe’s local-manufacturing targets.
Taken these developments on the European and global market and R&I, the conference will structure the discussions around three core aspects.
First, where is PV actually heading in Europe and where does Europe stand in PV deployment, manufacturing, and investments.
Second, how do we define and understand the competitiveness dynamics within the PV value chain in Europe and globally.
Finally, how should we finance innovation and can innovation enable us to obtain a competitive advantage on a global scale, with a special focus on the newly-developed EU Competitiveness Fund.
The ETIP-PV is thus inviting you to join the conference and all of the discussions on these points. Register for free and find the full agenda here.
