We need to reinvest in a European domestic solar PV industry. This is critical to ensure a diversification of supply for the EU project development industry and their resilience to shocks, such as module shortages. This will also increase the sustainability of the technology, and support the green transition.
Europe has unique strengths to count on when reinvesting into a solar industry. Our highly-performing research and development ecosystem has particular advantages in the advanced technologies soon to dominate the market, such as heterojunction or perovskite. Europe also has an enduring industrial ecosystem, with ingots and wafers production capacity across the continent.
For these reasons, SolarPower Europe has launched the European Solar Initiative, the industrial alliance for solar, with its partner EIT InnoEnergy. The initiative aims at reshoring 20 GW worth of solar PV manufacturing in the EU by 2025, from polysilicon to module.