Europe

The European solar body has published ten regulatory asks on solar and digitalization that it believes can help expedite the uptake of PV and smart grids across the continent.

Xavier Daval, the president of the French solar association SER-SOLER, spoke with pv magazine about the necessity of creating a large European industrial group specialized in solar module production. Leaving solar manufacturing to China and the United States, Daval said, would make Europe energy dependent for the next decades.

ACER and CEER have asked the European Commission to take a more market-oriented approach for the Clean Energy Package 2020-2030. The two organizations called on Brussels to remove priority dispatch for existing renewables and to avoid net metering.

Leading solar analysts say that SolarWorld’s bankruptcy, announced yesterday, should not have come as a surprise. Pointing to the current “viciously competitive” cell and module market, and the ongoing dispute between Hemlock and SolarWorld subsidiary Deutsche solar GmbH, analysts from IHS Markit and BNEF, say that the writing had been on the wall for the German company for some time.

The European solar industry’s peak body SolarPower Europe says that yesterday’s insolvency announcement, from German-based producer SolarWorld, is regrettable and that it is of “vital importance” that all parts of the solar value chain are present in Europe.

According to a new report from (ETIP PV), solar is already competitive with the current low wholesale electricity prices in southern European countries, while in Europe’s northern regions PV can become competitive within the coming five years.

The European Investment Bank and Eiffel Investment Group have launched a fund devoted to investments in the green economy in France and Europe. The fund will provide bridge financing for, among others, projects in the solar and storage sectors.

Interview: SolarPower Europe has appointed Wacker Chemie’s Christian Westermeier as new president. pv magazine spoke with the outgoing president Oliver Schäfer about the reasons behind his unexpected resignation and the future of PV and the energy market in Europe.

SolarPower Europe announced that Christian Westermeier has been elected as the organization’s new president. Westermeier is the Vice President, Marketing, Sales and Application Engineering of German chemical company and polysilicon manufacturer Wacker Chemie.

The European solar market decreased by 21% last year. This disappointing if not unexpected news opened SolarPower Europe’s annual summit in Brussels today. Grid integration of Europe’s solar capacity, EU market rules for protecting the ‘prosumer’ and reforms to the continent’s faltering Emissions Trading Scheme were major themes during the plenary session.