This year, members of the SolarPower Europe team headed to Malaga to take part in the conference, during a crucial time of the European solar industry. SolarPower Europe have a clear vision for reshoring solar PV manufacturing to Europe, with key steps outlined in a recent statement from our Board of Directors.
EU Industry Days provided an opportunity to shine a light on some of the efforts being taken to support European solar manufacturers, and what must be done to secure the industry now and for the future.
Here are some of the key sound pieces we heard throughout the event:
"We're here to shape the future of European industry... to discuss the key role of EU manufacturing and how we can keep it and its jobs in Europe"
- Maive Rute, Deputy Director General of DG GROW.
"We are maintaining our longstanding commitment to free and open trade... For our manufacturers... we need to mobilise public and private resources... that's everything from IPCEIs, state aid revisions, REPowerEU... and the EU Sovereignty Fund that we are still missing"
EU Commissioner for Internal Market
"The response to the energy crisis is not temporary solution, but a structural approach... We have to accelerate the decarbonisation of the economy through renewable electrification. Decarbonisation is a lever for competitiveness... In the Net Zero Industry Act, we need to take a technology-specific approach"
CEO at Iberdrola Renewables
Director-General for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, at the European Commission, Kerstin Jorna wrapped up the conference, stating:
"Europe is a continent of opportunities... It's up to us as businesses and citizens to seize that opportunity and improve that opportunity - we know there's things not going so well, from bureaucracy to missing funding. It will be freedom and collaboration that will move the cursor."
SolarPower Europe also made some key contributions to a number of events across the 2 days. Our Policy Director, Dries Acke, moderated our session on solar supply chains, hosting panelists Pascal Richard, co-founder of CARBON; Jochen Hauff, Director of Corporate Strategy, Energy Policy and Sustainability at BayWa r.e.; Laura Miranda, Head of Sustainability and Government Affairs at Oxford PV; and Joaquim Nunes de Almeida, a director at the European Commission, responsible for mobility and energy intensive industries.
Rewatch the session here.
Our Head of Market Intelligence spoke on the panel discussion organised by Euromines on raw materials, joined by fellow panelists from WindEurope, FLSmidth, LKAB, and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Rewatch the session here.
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