The race for solar supremacy: innovation driving Europe’s green goals. This is the headline of the new short video on solar energy and the Solar Alliance broadcast by Business Planet-EuroNews.
Europe is attempting to shake off its dependence on Russian gas by ramping up its renewables industry, specifically solar power.
Solar is seen as crucial to Europe’s energy security, climate goals, and jobs. Europe installed a record-breaking 41.4 gigawatts of photovoltaic power in 2022 — a rise of 47% compared to 2021– according to industry group SolarPower Europe. But right now China dominates the solar industry. Figures from the Paris-based International Energy Agency predict that up to 95% of the solar industry could be concentrated in China by 2025.
Many interesting topics are covered, such as an interview with Tobias Brandis, President of Wacker Polysilicon, who talks about innovation, future investments and his market assessment and predictions for the solar market.
There is also a summary of the inaugural conference of the European Solar PV Industry Alliance. The Alliance is one of the concrete initiatives of the EU Solar Energy Strategy, adopted in May 2022 as part of the REPowerEU plan to help the EU reach over 320 GW of newly installed solar photovoltaic capacity by 2025 and nearly 600 GW by 2030.
In the southeastern French city of Grenoble, the French start-up ROSI, supported by EIT Innoenergy, will be presented. Rossi deals with the other end of the solar chain – recycling. The increase in solar modules installed in recent years will be mirrored by an increase in modules that will soon reach the end of their life. This presents a major challenge for the recycling industry. With climate, energy security and jobs at stake, it is vital that Europe is able to revitalise its solar energy industry.
You can watch the video here or click the picture below
The European Commission has presented the Net-Zero Industry Act to scale up manufacturing of clean technologies in the EU and prepare the Union for the clean energy transition.
Yesterday, on the 15th of April, Energy Ministers from 23 EU countries, along with industry representatives from the European solar sector, came together to sign the EU Solar Charter (here). The signing ceremony took place during an Informal Energy Ministerial in Brussels, where representatives from the European Solar PV Industry Alliance (ESIA) were also in attendance.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has recently signed a significant loan agreement with Sweden InvestEU, paving the way for a financial injection of up to EUR 35 million into Exeger's cutting-edge solar cell technology.