The European Solar Alliance: the start of a “Made in Europe” solar value chain

On Friday 9th December, the European Commission officially launched the European Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance. This aims at scaling up manufacturing technologies of innovative solar photovoltaic products and components in the EU, in order to diversify production and establish a “Made in Europe” solar value chain. It will do so by promoting investments in large-scale factories, aiming for an annual output of 30 gigawatts (GW) for each key solar component by 2025 – more than six times the current capacity of around 4.5 GW per year.

The industry alliance is part of the EU Solar Strategy, published in May alongside broader EU plans to end Europe’s reliance on Russian fossil fuels following the invasion of Ukraine. The objective is to deploy almost 600 GW of solar PV capacity by 2030, with an interim target of 320 GW by 2023 – more than double the bloc’s current output. More recently, the Commission tabled a proposal to speed up permitting for renewables that are expected to accelerate solar energy deployment in the EU. Solar rooftop projects, for instance, and small solar installations below 50 kW of capacity will be exempt from a dedicated environmental impact assessment.

Thierry Breton, the EU’s Commissioner responsible for the Single Market attended the official launch of the alliance. In his speech, he warned of the green paradox of solar energy:

On the one hand, solar energy is essential for our decarbonation and energy independence efforts. On the other hand, while our continent has been an innovator in the photovoltaic sector since day 1, we lost our market shares and are struggling to tap into the job potential of this sector. In fact, China's share of solar panel manufacturing exceeds 80%.

 As a matter of fact, Europe has a lot of work ahead: of the 450 GW of photovoltaic (PV) modules that were produced worldwide in 2021, less than 9 GW were manufactured in the EU. This year, almost 40 GW of solar PV is expected to be installed across the Member States – a new record for the Union.

Moreover, the Commissioner referred to procurement as a fundamental tool to overcome this challenge:

On procurement, most Member States are procuring clean technology infrastructure based on price only. Using other criteria for public auctions is a possible but underexploited tool. Some advocate looking at criteria to ensure that taxpayer money in this area, be it via subsidies or tax credits granted to consumers, has European added value. I am open to exploring this further.

Along these lines, and using the national experiences of the Dutch Buyer Group, DG GROW C2 is collaborating with the competence centre Pianoo and Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland to form a buyer group on sustainable Solar PV at the European level. The aim is to launch a Community of Practice (CoP) on this topic around the first quarter of 2023 for further EU collaboration. The roadmap for this CoP is currently being developed and it includes the opportunity to gather (market) information and make an inventory of PV modules for buyers to compare, as well as to suggest new ways to weigh sustainability aspects versus price and performance criteria, helping buyers to write tenders that include sustainability aspects.