Powering the Future of Solar Growth

However, the report warns that the annual growth of solar employment will stall in 2024, with a projected growth of only 0.4% this year. This pause in EU solar workforce growth reflects the slower solar deployment growth projected in 2024, especially in the rooftop market, and the challenges experienced by the solar manufacturing sector.

Despite the slowdown, the EU will continue to grow its solar workforce and offer 1 million jobs by 2027 in line with the sector growth projections, required for Europe's competitiveness, climate, and energy security goals. Accordingly, the report provides a set of policy recommendations to get Europe on track.

In the same week, we were delighted to highlight best practices for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion across the solar sector with our Solar Diversity Champion Awards. This year’s Gold award went to Sonnedix for their internship programme which aims to create a pool of underrepresented talent to feed into the solar and renewables sectors, including women, youth, and minorities.

Initiatives like those presented by our Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners are offering a light of hope, ensuring everyone can be a part of a bright solar future. Watch the Solar Diversity Champion Awards here.

Later this month, we launched our new paper, a state of play report on Support for European Solar Manufacturers, marking 6 months on from when 23 EU Member States and over 100 companies signed the European Solar Charter.

While this report clearly shows positive action in the direction of solar manufacturing across Member States, it is spread unevenly and is not at the level required. Many European solar manufacturers are in crisis as market forces are driving down the price of solar components, making it difficult for Europe’s solar industry to sell their products. Reshoring manufacturing to Europe, therefore, needs a sound industrial strategy, with short-term support to keep European manufacturers afloat. With this new paper, we call on the signatories of the Solar Charter to follow-up on their commitments under the European Solar Charter.

From upstream to downstream, we also put a spotlight on solar and nature this month with our new joint paper with The Nature Conservancy. The paper shows that nature-inclusive solar parks can help not only mitigating the impacts of climate change, but also help go the extra mile to restore nature. A new, cross-sectorial EU policy framework is needed. 

Finally, as you receive this month’s newsletter, we are gearing up for our biggest event of the year: RE-Source. This year, a record 1400+ attendees will gather in Amsterdam for a packed programme featuring over 100 senior industry and political players, 350+ pre-scheduled meetings between energy buyers and suppliers, and 350+ corporate clean energy buyers to connect with. We look forward to seeing you there!