Solar has been installed at “record-breaking” speed in the European Union for the third year in a row, said SolarPower Europe CEO Walburga Hemetsberger ahead of a recently published report.
According to the report, member states installed a combined total of 56 GW in the last 12 months – consistent with three years of 40% year-on-year gains. Germany took the top spot by installing 14.1 GW, followed by Spain with 8.2 GW, Italy with 4.8 GW, Poland with 4.6 GW and the Netherlands with 4.1 GW.
But this “success story” could soon be over, SolarPower Europe cautions, with the last three years of “extremely fast growth” expected to slow as energy prices dip to pre-crisis levels and the PV development landscape becoming increasingly “aggravated” by an “inflationary environment” plagued with high-interest rates. The association forecasts next year's growth to only be 11%.
Residential demand for rooftop solar has also slowed, with a one-year minimum wait for utility-scale legislative instruments to take effect, said SolarPower Europe.
“Despite impressive achievements until now, solar is reaching a critical juncture at which the further growth path for the lowest cost, most versatile, and most simply deployable power technology will be decided on,” according to the report.
SolarPower Europe Policy Director Dries Acke said it is “fortunate” that extreme energy prices are not driving solar’s achievements but this means governments should pick up the slack.
“We cannot accept grid connection times of more than 4 years, we cannot allow slow local progress on permitting, we cannot risk trade barriers slowing deployment, nor miss the chance to re-shore European solar manufacturing,” he said. “That does mean; however, the onus is back on policymakers to ensure good investment conditions for solar.”
According to the report, the European Union's total installed is currently 263 GW – a 27% increase from last year – with 2025 installation figures forecasted to be 73.8 GW followed by 84.2 GW in 2026 and 93.1 GW in 2027.
The association recommends policy amendments to support solar expansion in Europe. This includes the European Central Bank lowering the cost of capital for “green investments,” improving grid flexibility, nurturing the workforce, improving permitting processes, and scaling up sustainable, “diversified” solar supply chains.
SolarPower Europe said that trade defense “instruments” are not part of the solution as investigating and implementing trade barriers on solar is a “lose-lose strategy for Europe.”
SolarPower Europe and another major player in the solar debate, the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC), have recently been at loggerheads over whether the European Union should limit products from entering the region made from alleged forced labor.
SolarPower Europe said in the report that it “looks forward” to the first European Commission's environmental rules for solar taking effect, as well as the upcoming Forced Labour Ban Act and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. These initiatives will help the supply chain become “more sustainable, transparent and free of any links to forced labor,” it said.
The association also said it had called on EU decision-makers to recognize its Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) in legislation to ensure “transparency” across the global solar value chain.
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As per my understanding after reading this article, solar success story would only be over in terms of pricing, not in terms getting energy without burning fossil fuels.
but remember PV cells are not grown on trees, but rather manufactured by burning fossil fuel to separate oxide from silicon oxide, spilling out a lot of toxic chemicals, and CO2 emission.
As Dries Acke notes, four years to connect to the grid is a major impediment. Difficult to avoid the conclusion that this foot dragging is a deliberate attempt intrenched special interests to delay the transition to renewables.
I am a electrical engineer with Lang term experience, so like to read your magazine.
As Dries Acke notes, four years to connect to the grid is a major impediment. Difficult to avoid the conclusion that this foot dragging is a deliberate attempt by intrenched special interests to delay the transition to renewables.
Maybe. In the UK the national grid have always been very slow and costly to arrange a grid connection. A lot of the time they can’t even give a straight answer how long it will take.
Very informative magazine towards new development in Green Hydrogen production and its application in various industries.
Solar success=Subsidies. Sometimes the subsidies are not enough to overcome what all the genuine business ventures have to deal with.
I think not.
Cheap oil/gas and high interest rates will be short lived. Additionally, those distractions will pressure solar prices down.
That’s how capitalism works!
You magazine is informative I will appreciate if your are able to make it available to us for reading.
56GW will only power 56,000 cars lol, hardly anything to get excited about for the European Union. In the USA 75% of the land would need to be covered in solar panels to run every house, business and car. There would be no room for people to live.
The whole solar electric plan is a failure. There aren’t enough minerals in the world to produce all the batteries necessary to store the energy. Solar panels are high toxic once discarded and they don’t last very long. To produce 1 electric vehicle, 40 tons of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere and the devastation to the land extraction the minerals would be catastrophic to all life on the planet.
The industry as a whole is a complete joke. Until Nikola Tesla’s technology stops being suppressed, humanity is better off with nuclear and “fossil” fuels which are frankly abundant and less harmful to the environment.
56 GW is 56 million KiloWatts. 5.6 KW is about enough for a car on average, over a year, so that’scenough for 10 million cers
Silicon cell panels aren’t toxic.
New roles for PV can be evaporation reducing or earth energy rebalancing with dew water harvesting.