European PV Industry Alliance: How it relates to the war in Ukraine

The European PV Industry Alliance aims to build sustainability and strategic autonomy for the European photovoltaic (PV) value chain. It identifies barriers, opportunities and investment opportunities in the PV value chain and addresses issues of circularity, sustainability and impact on skills.

What the Alliance is doing

To accelerate the adoption of solar in the EU, the European Solar Alliance was established in 2022 to create an industry ecosystem in the EU to ensure the reliability and diversification of solar energy supply. This will require the expansion of EU production of competitive, innovative and sustainable solar energy products and the diversification of components and raw materials in the international solar energy value chain.

The Alliance will develop and implement a strategic action plan based on the following:

• Identifying bottlenecks to production expansion and providing recommendations;
• Facilitating access to finance, including creating pathways for commercialization of solar manufacturing;
• Providing a framework for collaboration on development and deployment;
• Supporting international partnerships and sustainable global supply chains;
• Supporting solar energy research and innovation;
• Promote and strengthen communication on circularity and sustainability;
• Identify and develop a skilled workforce for the solar manufacturing sector.

Who participates and how to join

The Alliance brings together companies and stakeholders interested in supporting European solutions to increase European solar panel and component manufacturing capacity and diversify sources of products, components and raw materials. The Alliance is open to all public and private organizations active in the solar sector, including companies and associations, social partners, education and training providers, research and technology institutes, investors, civil society organizations, and representatives of EU national, regional and public authorities.

Any organization with relevant activities in the European Economic Area may join the Alliance at any time by completing a membership application form. In doing so, they must meet the eligibility criteria set out in the Alliance's Statutes.

On December 9, 2022, the European Solar Alliance was officially launched at a high-level meeting in Brussels. Thierry Breton, EU Internal Market Commissioner, hosted the conference to formally launch the Alliance and discuss the key issues it will address.

Background

The European Green Deal and the Ready by 55 package set ambitious targets for the EU to deploy large amounts of renewable energy in the near future. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission approved the REPowerEU plan on May 18, 2022, which aims to end dependence on Russian fossil fuels and aims to increase the EU's share of renewable energy to 45% by 2030. At the heart of the REPowerEU plan is the rapid deployment of renewable energy on a large scale. The EU Solar Strategy, published as part of the plan, envisions the deployment of 320 GW of solar power by 2025, more than double the 2020 target, and almost 600 GW by 2030.

To achieve these goals, the following strategy has been developed:

• Proposed to extend the EU solar value chain through the European Solar Alliance.
• Promoting rapid and mass deployment of PV systems through the European Solar Rooftop Initiative.
• Introducing measures to simplify and speed up permitting procedures.
• Ensuring access to skilled labor and job creation potential for solar energy production and deployment in the EU.

Alliance Now

The Alliance has now established four project working groups: non-price conditions, supply chain, finance and skills, led by key industry players such as Carbon, Enel Greenpower, Engie, IBC, Meyer Burger Technology AG and Wacker Chemie AG, to achieve a series of concrete actions that will form a consolidated plan for the re-industrialization of the European solar PV industry. These actions will support the EU's Green Deal industrial ambitions to develop an industry with an annual capacity of 30 GW by 2025, adding Euro 60 billion of new GDP in Europe annually and creating more than 400,000 XNUMX new jobs (direct and indirect).

EIT InnoEnergy's Head of EIT comment

Javier Sanz, EIT InnoEnergy's Thematic Head of Renewable Energy and Head of ESIA, commented, "We are delighted to see the incredibly rapid progress of the EU Solar PV Industry Alliance, with over 110 members joining across the solar value chain, from over 17 countries. It is vital that we continue to capitalize on a robust solar PV value chain and we are excited to see the results of our four project working groups to be presented later this year".

The alliance's impact on the world

Established by the European Commission and led by EIT InnoEnergy, the European Solar PV Industry Alliance promotes the innovative expansion of the sustainable industrial solar value chain in the EU, especially in the PV system manufacturing sector. The steering committee consists of the European Commission itself, EIT InnoEnergy, Solar Power Europe and the European Solar Manufacturing Council.

The Alliance supports the growth of European industry that develops and commercializes advanced technologies across the value chain, resulting in more innovative, efficient, cyclical and sustainable products and making EU climate and energy goals more achievable.