European Commission: Introductory remarks by Commissioner Simson during the meeting with CEOs from the Solar PV industry

According to your own outlook for 2020, solar PV is at 137 GW. We want to see this figure to double to 320 GW by 2030. And then triple again by 2050. The increases in production needed are enormous.

We also see reasons for cautious optimism as EU member states installed 18.2 GW of solar power capacity in 2020, an 11% improvement over the 16.2 GW deployed in the previous year, despite the pandemic. That makes 2020 the second-best year ever for solar in the EU.

Even with this optimistic outlook, there are many issues still to consider. Standards are an important one. We must ensure that standards for installation on roofs integrated into the building envelope do not present barriers in the Internal Market. This needs to be done shortly, because many Member States have told us they will rely on renovation for economic stimulus and for the uptake of RES.

On terms of actions on our side, the European Commission presented its 2030 Climate Target Plan, which set a new and higher target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions of 55% in Europe by 2030. That is part of our goal to be the first climate neutral continent by 2050.

The success of reaching these ambitions relies mainly on renewable energy. So it’s clear that PV is a key technological sector at the core of these ambitions.

Last year we also adopted strategies on hydrogen, energy system integration, offshore renewable energy, the renovation wave and a revision of the EU main energy infrastructure planning for projects of common interest: the Trans-European Network for Energy. All of these strategies set the pace of our actions.

Right now we are speeding up to reviewing all our legislation in all sectors of energy and climate action, and will present proposals in June so that all aspects of our work will be, as we say, “fit for 55”.

With an increased renewables target of 40%, we are aiming to provide the necessary predictability and investment certainty for further renewable energy deployment across all sectors.

Of course as part of that we want to further develop solar energy. When people hear ‘solar’, we want them to think ‘Europe’.

To do that, we need to take stock of our current position and look at where we need to focus our efforts.

I see new opportunities emerging in the solar industry in parts of the value chain and market segments where differentiation plays an important role.

EU companies are competitive in the monitoring, control and balance of system segments. They represent leaders in inverter manufacturing and in solar trackers in particular.

EU companies have also maintained a leading position in the deployment segment, where established players like Enerparc, Engie, Enel Green Power or BayWa.re have been able to gain new market share worldwide.

And, manufacturing has still a strong base in Europe – I’m thinking of Meyer Burger, Centrotherm, Schmid, among others.

Despite these strengths, we need to focus on the novel PV technologies. We should ensure they reach the commercialisation phase and relaunch the EU solar PV cells and module manufacturing.

The strong knowledge position of the EU research institutions, the skilled labour force and the existing and emerging industry players are the basis to re-establish a strong European PV supply chain.

Another area where the European Commission wants to target is emerging offshore renewable technologies, such as floating offshore solar.

We need to move from the pilot to demonstration phase. To support deployment, we have adopted our offshore renewable strategy in November last year. One of the actions planned under this strategy is the relaunch of the Clean Energy Industry Forum to support the industry in the sector.

I’ll end my intervention by mentioning the importance of working with Member States. Specifically in their finalisation of the Recovery and Resilience Plans which will involve a strong focus on green recovery. A minimum of 37% of expenditure will be related to climate and we expect the PV sector to be largely supported by the plans prepared by Member States.