More and more European countries are investing in photovoltaic power generation, creating a need for the EU to invest in its own solar panel production capacity, including through state aid and the creation of a dedicated bank to finance such plants, said Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe.
“We need to keep up the momentum and invest more. It’s not easy, especially as the price of solar panels is very low also because of intense competition from China. We need to find ways to support this industry again, including through state aid. We also need to find a new instrument, the Solar Manufacturing Bank, which can bridge the cost gap between European and Chinese solar panels, the former being now double the latter in terms of price,” she said.
There are currently more than 20 countries installing more than 1 GW per year, with Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy leading the way, but Poland and Romania are also investing heavily in solar. According to Hemetsberger, the European PV industry should be able to compete globally again, but to get there we need investment and institutions to manage the risks.
“On the one hand, we are happy that so many solar panels are being produced in China, because the price of solar panels has come down, but we need to start producing in Europe as well, and the production target is 30 GW of solar panels produced in Europe. Europe aims to produce 40% of the solar panels it installs,” she said.
