Walburga Hemetsberger

The new Clean Industrial Deal provides a “specific boost” for European solar manufacturing, but a lack of financing and storage to support grids will continue to hold back deployment unless addressed.

PV is often touted as the progressive titan of the renewable energy industry, but when Walburga Hemetsberger joined Europe’s solar lobby giant SolarPower Europe in 2019 as CEO, she faced a problem: her board was male-only. On the cusp of her fifth year in an industry where she is a rare species – a woman in charge – she explains why she fought for more female representation in the solar sector from the belly of her business group.

The situation in the energy markets is tense. Following national pushes for action, the European Commission has now announced its set of recommendations to combat rocketing energy prices.

While trade group SolarPower Europe has welcomed the EU’s emissions-reduction legislative package, it renewed calls for solar and energy storage to be mandated on buildings and urged policymakers to go even further than the stated ambition for clean power to fire 40% of European electricity by 2030.

The economic fallout of the Covid-19 outbreak is yet to be determined but as legislators scramble to establish fiscal support for the EU it is becoming clear the suits in Brussels are not prepared to scrap their hard-won Green Deal plan. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Lobby group CEO Walburga Hemetsberger says the plans announced by commission president Ursula von der Leyen this week should place the European solar industry front and center.

Walburga Hemetsberger joined SolarPower Europe as its new CEO around six months ago. It’s been a busy time, with the European elections and attempts to implement net zero emissions strategies that have kept Brussels hustling and bustling. At the same time, Europe’s solar industry association has been trying to push its industrial policy and rooftop campaign. Hemetsberger sat down with pv magazine for an update.

Solarpower Europe has released its estimates for Europe’s installation figures in 2018. A reduction in system prices and a policy push boosted solar across the continent. And if the trade association’s CEO is to be believed, the newfound growth has just begun.