The European Commission launched the European Solar PV Industry Alliance to promote investment in the EU solar manufacturing industry. The Alliance, together with industry participants, research institutions, associations and other interested parties, has approved the goal of achieving 30GW of European manufacturing capacity in the entire value chain by 2025.

According to the data of SolarPower Europe, the annual capacity of 30GW will supply about 75% of the solar panels required by Europe each year. This capability will also support the manufacturing industry by creating more than 100000 jobs only, and support about 1 million jobs focused on installing and maintaining solar panels.

EIT InnoEnergy, an innovation group, is one of the founders of the European Solar Energy Initiative and the foundation of the newly established alliance. It has been appointed as the secretariat of the EU Solar PV Industry Alliance and joined the steering committee of the alliance together with SPE and the European Solar Manufacturing Commission.

Diego Pavia, CEO of EIT InnoEnergy, said that, as we have done for batteries through the work of the European Battery Alliance, we will now do for solar photovoltaic, using our strong industrial value chain blueprint and stakeholder network to achieve the rapid development of the entire solar photovoltaic value chain manufacturing project and benefit EU citizens.

The list of priorities of the alliance will be to mobilize private and public funds to fund domestic manufacturing solar PV projects to expand capacity, ensure a sustainable and fair competitive environment and stimulate the demand for sustainable PV products. It will also implement ecological design requirements for photovoltaic systems and products, and launch a college to explore the skills required for manufacturing.

Building domestic manufacturing capacity within the EU will be the key to achieving the goals set by REPowerEU in this region, and the solar energy deployment will reach 320GW by 2025. Dries Acke, SPE policy director, said that the EU Solar PV Industry Alliance was an important recognition of the importance of building solar panels in Europe. This is the growth of the European manufacturing story. The alliance means that the funds can be used for the right projects, but if we do not have a dedicated solar fund for the use of the alliance, we will be cut off our knees. Keywords: overseas news, engineering news

The European Commission launched the work of the Alliance with its approval in October 2021, and then launched a public appeal to bring together industrial participants, research institutions, consumer associations, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders interested in the solar photovoltaic industry. During the period between the approval of the European Commission and the launch of the Alliance today, many participants in the solar industry called on the EU to strengthen the domestic manufacturing ecosystem of solar energy and take similar measures as the United States and India have done so far.Editor/Xing Wentao