The second panel of the conference was themed "Policy, legislation and progress towards the 2023 targets in Europe", with speakers discussing the impact of Brussels policies on the downstream and manufacturing sectors of the European solar industry.

To build a 30GW industrial chain, of course "we will import"

Discussions surrounding the localization of European solar manufacturing (or lack thereof) have been heating up recently. In announcing as-yet unspecified financial support for the industry, EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson cited the "very fragile situation" of EU manufacturers.

Driven by the European Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance (ESIA), the EU currently aims to achieve 30GW of solar photovoltaic capacity across the entire value chain by 2025.

Christian PhoDuc, chief technology officer of Swiss renewable energy investment company Smartenergy, told the panel: "The (30GW) target is one thing, but we need to put the environment and the decision to make such investments into action during the implementation phase. We Heard about Meyer Burger (which gave up its manufacturing plant in Europe earlier this year)."

"At the same time, looking at energy prices, Wacker Chemie (Europe's largest polysilicon producer) thinks it's too difficult to continue producing here (Europe), and they may move more to Asia. That's a bit frustrating."

"However, market demand is continuing to grow and that, coupled with emerging political rhetoric about the need for supply chain resilience, does create opportunities to regain some share in Europe."

The concept of future demand growth was at the heart of all discussions on the first morning of the conference. In the opening remarks of the panel discussion, João Amaral, group chief technology officer and Portugal country manager of developer Voltalia, invited the audience to raise their hands and answer: "Who thinks consumption will grow by 2030?" There were significantly more hands raised than doubters.

Given the growing demand for electricity and solar PV, Amaral said: "One thing is clear: we will import modules and inverters, that's clear, there is no way around it. Solar capacity outside Europe, especially The production capacity of China's leading manufacturers has expanded significantly in recent years."

A January report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance found that investment in solar manufacturing has reached a point where "new factories will no longer be needed by 2030."

"The oversupply will put pressure on solar module prices in the coming years, weakening the case for local production in markets with less existing solar manufacturing," the report said.

Supervision 'extremely difficult'

Amaral went on to say that changing industry dynamics such as overcapacity and falling component prices are "completely different" than a year ago, so "when all the variables are changing, especially from the market and from suppliers, it's easy to It is difficult to have solid and stable supervision."

"We need to control" imports from other markets, but Europe "cannot suddenly say we are no longer working with China and other countries... What is important for our industry, apart from political agendas, is that between companies Good relationships and building partnerships are also extremely important."

The "political agenda" resurfaced later in the panel discussion, which turned to the need to balance supply regulation, in-house manufacturing support with growing demand for solar development.

Francisco Beirão, head of European government affairs at solar developer Lightsource bp, talks about the Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA) introduced last year and the way the government is supporting developers and domestic manufacturers.

"NZIA is a way of reacting to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the US's massive climate package, to make renewable energy supply chains more resilient."

Many members of the Commission and the EU Parliament believe that "we need to limit supply". "I think the industry response is that if you're going to limit the supply of technology, then that impacts the deployment of the technology, and then you ask the question of how to find the balance between supply chain resilience and not impacting on-the-ground deployment of renewables."

Beirão foresees that "sub-sectors of the market" will "provide visibility to European manufacturing investors, while much of the market will still operate on international supply chains - controlling costs, remaining competitive, and focusing heavily on serving customers and achieving targets" .

The European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) previously called the pricing of imported modules in Europe "uncompetitive" and "unsustainable".

"We will continue to import, if we purely wait for European technology to serve the market - that is not possible."Trina solar panels