EU Solar PV Industry Alliance sets target of 30GW of PV manufacturing capacity by 2025 and starts work with EIT InnoEnergy as lead

Alliance launch statement sees the European Commission and leaders of the European PV industry commit to working jointly to accelerate and de-risk investments across the solar PV value chain.  EIT InnoEnergy to lead the delivery of the group’s newly launched strategic action plan. 

9 December 2022: EIT InnoEnergy, the innovation engine for sustainable energy across Europe, supported by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, has been appointed by the European Commission as the Secretariat to the EU Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Industry Alliance.  EIT InnoEnergy is joined by SolarPower Europe and the European Solar Manufacturing Council on the alliance’s steering committee.

To deliver the EU Solar Strategy objectives, EIT InnoEnergy will lead the Alliance in its ambitions to re-develop, de-risk and accelerate the PV industry in Europe across all segments of the value chain to create its competitive position in the context of booming demand for solar PV in Europe and globally.   

The targets set by the Alliance, together with the European Commission, are to develop an industry to supply an annual capacity of 30 GW by 2025, adding 60 billion Euros of new GDP every year in Europe and creating more than 400,000 new jobs (direct and indirect).

To achieve these ambitions, the Alliance will follow a seven-pronged strategic action plan covering the key conditions for investments in PV manufacturing capacities in Europe:

As per the joint launch statement signed today, the first priority actions will be: 

a) Mobilising public and private finance for European solar PV manufacturing projects to scale up capacity, making best use of all existing and new European financing instruments, notably: the Innovation Fund clean technology manufacturing window in the current large-scale call, the REPowerEU chapter in the national recovery and resilience plans, the EIB contribution to expanding the EU’s clean energy technology manufacturing capacity in the context of REPowerEU.

b) Ensuring a sustainable level playing field and stimulating demand for competitive, efficient and sustainable PV products and systems.

c) Working on the swift implementation of ecodesign requirements for PV systems and products and on public procurement actions.

d) Anticipating the skills requirements of this new industry with the start of the European Solar PV Industry Alliance Academy.

Spearheading the roll-out of plans, EIT InnoEnergy will build on its impressive track record of leading the European Battery Alliance (EBA). Having delivered the industrial workstream of the EBA since its launch in 2017, EIT InnoEnergy has built a blueprint for industrial value chain development, bringing together the people and resource required for acceleration and scale. 

Diego Pavia, CEO of EIT InnoEnergy said, “We are honoured to be appointed to lead the work of the EU Solar PV Industry Alliance. As we have done for batteries through our work on the European Battery Alliance, we will now do for solar PV, leveraging our robust industrial value chain blueprint and network of stakeholders to achieve rapid development of manufacturing projects across the solar PV value chain for the benefit of EU citizens.”

At the Alliance launch, Thierry Breton,  European Commissioner for the Internal Market, said, “Third countries are giving massive support to develop their clean tech industries and attract ours. The EU needs to up its game in terms of investment and regulatory environment for our clean tech manufacturing to thrive, create jobs in Europe and compete globally. The new European Solar PV Industrial Alliance is a key initiative to decrease dependencies and boost EU manufacturing capacity of solar PV technologies to 30 Gigawatt annually by 2025 across the full value chain.” 

As the Secretariat of the Alliance, EIT InnoEnergy will facilitate business and industrial cooperation across the solar PV value-chain, lead the implementation of the strategic industrial action plan, manage membership, gather and disseminate market intelligence, manage communications and run the Alliance’s ‘Business and Investment Platform’.

SolarPower Europe and the European Solar Manufacturing Council will join EIT InnoEnergy on the Alliance’s steering committee as recognition of their role as key industry stakeholders. Together, the steering committee will oversee the delivery of the Alliance’s work and the European Solar PV Forum, a large, annual public event that will facilitate high-level policy and political discussions.