SolarPower Europe at Intersolar Europe 2023

The smarter E Europe Conference Opening

Get Inspired. Together to the Next Level!

SolarPower Europe representative: Walburga Hemetsberger

Global & European Decarbonization Strategies: Discussing the Long-Term Role of Solar Power

With solar power having added more capacity than all other power generation technologies combined in recent years, governments around the world have been increasingly putting solar at the heart of their decarbonization strategies. Next to China, the European Union probably has the most ambitious PV targets. Through its first Solar Strategy, the European Commission has defined targets for solar capacity growth of around 50 percent to 400 GWac (500 GWdc) until 2025, and another 50 percent by 2030.
 

This session will cover:

• Global Market Outlook for Solar Power 2023-2027 (report launch)
• The role of solar power in global and European decarbonization policies
• Policies and business strategies for the rapid deployment of extensive solar capacities

SolarPower Europe representative: Michael Schmela

During this session, it will be presented the new SolarPower Europe's Global Market Outlook.

European Markets: Status & Strategies for Speeding up PV Deployment

After the European Union's solar market grew by nearly 50 percent to over 40 GW in 2022, this year's growth levels could be similar if the member states follow the ambitious guidance of the European Commission's RePowerEU plan, which aims to overcome Europe's dependence on Russian gas.

This session will cover:

• The status of demand for solar power in Europe
• New European 5-year installation forecast
• Challenges & opportunities in Europe's fastest-growing markets

SolarPower Europe representative: Raffaele Rossi

Agri PV: How to Utilize the Vast Potential for Solar Power in Agriculture

Agri PV has become a buzzword in the solar industry because it can bring together the needs of power plant developers and the food industry. Indeed, co-locating solar energy generation with agricultural operations can optimize space utilization and create multiple revenue streams, which would be a win-win situation. But how complimentary is this approach in reality? And how quickly is Agri PV evolving as the global solar industry is set to require additional space for several hundreds of gigawatts of utility-scale solar power every year?

This session will discuss:

• Deployment of Agri-PV- Product innovations
• Policies and cost considerations for agricultural projects
• Panel: What's needed to turn food famers into solar farmers?

During this session, it will be presented the new SolarPower Europe's Agri-Solar report

Utility-Scale Solar Power III: Solar Power & Sustainability - From Project Planning to Supply Chain Transparency

Sustainability needs to be high on the agenda of every serious solar developer today. As Environmental, Social And Governance (ESG) criteria are embedded in proposed legislation, it is more and more urgent to establish the confidence of investors and consumers in the sustainability of the solar sector and ensure civil society support for large-scale solar developments.
This session will discuss:

• The overall sustainability of traditional, utility-scale solar plants
• How to improve the sustainability of large-scale solar developments
• Cost considerations of sustainable PV plant development
• The supply chain of PV power plant components
• Initiatives solar developers are taking to improve supply chain transparency and sustainability including the Solar Stewardship Initiative

SolarPower Europe representative: Lina Dubina

ESIA Forum I: Solar Manufacturing in Europe - Ready for the Solar Renaissance?

11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Based on the European Commission's first Solar Strategy, the European Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance (ESIA) aims to build resilience and strategic autonomy for Europe's solar value chain by scaling up EU manufacturing of competitive, innovative and sustainable products. The first ESIA forum will consist of two sessions, the first of which will be a high-level political forum discussing the state of solar manufacturing in Europe.
 

The panel will discuss the following questions:

• Is the EU on track to reach its target of 30 GW of capacity covering the entire value chain by 2025?
• What are the main barriers to creating a notable solar manufacturing industry within the EU?
• What support measures for local manufacturing are in place?

ESIA Forum II: Solar Manufacturing in Europe: How To Make It Happen Competitively

02:00 pm - 03:30 pm

The working groups of the European Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance (ESIA) will provide details on the progress that has been made at re-building a European solar industry since the organization was launched in December of 2022.
 

This session will discuss:

• Financing of European manufacturing
• Demand for European solar products
• Supply chain bottlenecks
• Solutions for closing the skills gap

Speaker: Kerstin Jorna

Resources of Speed – Elements of Accelerating the Energy Transition

The session will debate today’s hurdles and potential bottlenecks in grids, before discussing answers and solutions on how to overcome them, including collaboration between stakeholders, securing the supply of inputs and ways to attract talents for the clean energy industry.  

SolarPower Europe representative: Daniel Dang 

Presentation title : A generational opportunity – attracting the trailblazers, history makers and game changers needed for the energy transition 

Guided tour through the exhibition with Kerstin Jorna and meeting with inverter companies (Fronius, SMA), cell and module producers (Meyer Burger and Enel). 

Presentation inverter profile paper & moderated discussion with executives from inverter sector 

Speaker: Kerstin Jorna
 

SolarPower Europe's inverter profiling paper will be handed over to Kirstin Jorna during this session.

Networking Event at PV Manufacturing Stage 

The Networking Event is gathering all stakeholders from machine and plant manufacturers, PV producers, material manufacturers, consultants and representatives of research institutes.
All 3 days of the Exhibition a wide range of manufacturing topics will be discussed at the PV Manufacturing Stage A2.409. You are welcome to join. 

Link

International solar investing - EU Global Gateway Information Session  

The EU has launched a new generation of funding for renewable energy development in Sub-Saharan Africa and around the world. This session will look at the contents of these fundings sources and explain how companies can access them. This session is supported by GET.invest, a European programme supported by the European Union, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Austria, aimed at mobilising investments in decentralised renewable energy in developing countries. 

Solar PV Research & Innovation: Status, Challenges and Priorities for Europe

Organised by the ETIP PV (European Technology and Innovation on Photovoltaics) this session will review the state of research and innovation in the PV sector, assessing progress achieved over the past years, and outlining priorities to be promoted as European and national funding R&I programmes for 2025 and beyond and about to be defined. 

Register here

Dual Use of Land & Solar: Opportunities & Barriers 

The event will bring together various solar industry actors to present solar best practices on dual-land use, in particular focusing on nature-integrated solar PV projects and agrivoltaic best practice example. This event will aim at discussing the biodiversity and ecosystem restoration benefits of solar PV and address questions such as: how can solar enable nature protection and enhance biodiversity? What legal and policy instruments are needed to support dual-land-use solar PV projects? How can such best practices be normalized? 

Communications and corporate sourcing workshop for African associations 

SolarPower Europe, supported by GET.invest, will organise a workshop for representatives of renewable energy associations from emerging markets, focused on advocating for improved investment frameworks, and the opportunities presented by new business models, such as corporate PPAs. GET.invest is a European programme supported by the European Union, Germany, Sweden, the Netherands, and Austria aimed at mobilising investments in decentralised renewable energy in developing countries. 

Solar Skills Dialogue 

This event, as part of the European Union Onshore Renewable Skills Initiative to be launched in March 2023 coordinated by SolarPower Europe, will gather the solar industry around the questions of skills and workforce. Do we have enough workforce to meet the solar ambition? Is the workforce trained enough to meet the quality requirement? This dialogue will allow an open discussion between the leading players of the sector and feed in Onshore Renewables Skills Initiative of the Commission.  

Register here

Women Energize Women Conference 2023

Panel Discussion on Political frameworks for more investment – How to accelerate the energy transition?

The “Women Energize Women” conference is a project by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE) and the German Solar Association (BSW-Solar). 

Gender equality in the energy sector is imperative to implement the whole potential of renewable energy and to foster a just energy transition, in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals.

A conference day in the context of the smarter E Europe fair in Munich in June 2023 is a great opportunity to address this issue. The „Women Energize Women“ conference invites participants from across the globe to experience discussion rounds, workshops and other innovative formats on energy and gender topics with exclusively female speakers. The conference allows for women* and allies of a social just energy transition to connect with each other, gain more visibility on international fora and shape the discussion on the energy transition themselves.

SolarPower Europe representative: Walburga Hemetsberger

Global Solar Association Workshop 

SolarPower Europe & BSW, supported by GSC, will bring together national solar associations from around the world to present the development of their respective national solar markets in the past year and their forecast for the coming years. This session is supported by GET.invest, a European programme supported by the European Union, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Austria, aimed at mobilising investments in decentralised renewable energy in developing countries. 

Register here 

SolarPower Europe Beach Booth Party 

Join us to celebrate the latest solar successes, network and have a drink with our team, members and other solar peers.