A working group under the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) launched an initiative to cover the full solar value chain, alongside adequate market protection against systemic overcapacity, foreign subsidies and dumping. They are asking for support for investment and operations to enable scaling and attract private capital.
More than 35 companies and organizations from Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom sent a joint letter and position paper to the European Parliament, European Council and member states.
“Module assembly alone does not create resilience. The real industrial value, technological know-how and innovation capacity are captured upstream in polysilicon, ingots, wafers and cells. If Europe wants technological sovereignty, it needs the entire value chain, not only its final assembly stage, they said.
In 2024, Europe set itself the ambitious target of manufacturing 40% of its annual solar demand at home by 2030 – roughly 30 GW per year – across the whole value chain, the group recalled. Even in the segment of modules, there is just 12 GW of annual output.
Solar is the cheapest source of electricity available to European consumers, yet the technologies and components that create most of the value, know-how and strategic importance of the solar supply chain are almost entirely sourced from outside Europe, the signatories pointed out.
On the brighter side, at least 38 specialised European machine builders still cover almost every process step
“Chinese production is increasingly being relocated to third countries, while a growing number of countries are replicating the same model: generous industrial subsidies, protective measures, lower labour and environmental standards, and state-backed support throughout the value chain. Rebuilding domestic manufacturing is not about protectionism; it is about reducing strategic dependencies and ensuring that the benefits of Europe’s energy transition remain in Europe,” the position paper reads.
Europe has more than 75 PV module assemblers, but only a handful of companies producing cells or gearing up to produce them at a gigawatt scale, or making ingots and wafers and polysilicon.
A chapter of the paper is devoted to production equipment. “At least 38 specialised European machine builders still cover almost every process step – for several steps, European suppliers are the only alternative to Chinese offers worldwide. Many of them also serve the semiconductor industry,” the document reads.
European technology competence is the precondition for rebuilding PV production at all, the paper’s authors argue. The signatories are calling for a defined share of manufacturing support to be linked to European equipment.
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