European Solar Initiative launched to drive continent’s PV manufacturing expansion
Image: Meyer Burger.
A European Commission-backed project has been launched to scale up Europe’s PV manufacturing industry and capture the continent’s “booming demand” for solar equipment.
SolarPower Europe and innovation group EIT InnoEnergy have founded the European Solar Initiative (ESI) that will build a value chain, from raw materials to recycling, and aim to capture the additional 20GW of annual solar demand forecasted in Europe for the next decade, generating an estimated €40 billion (US$48.6 billion) of GDP annually and creating 400,000 new jobs.
The partners said the project will also accelerate Europe’s climate agenda and economic recovery, contributing to European Green Deal objectives, which require the EU to become carbon neutral by 2050.