What is the European Solar Charter?

The European Union has set a goal of at least 30 GW of European solar manufacturing, at each stage of the value chain, by 2030. Right now, however, European solar manufacturers are facing a crisis. Market forces are driving down the price of solar components, making it difficult for Europe’s solar industry to sell their products. Some parts of the European solar value chain are particularly impacted, like solar modules and wafers. We continue our urgent calls to support these critical links in the solar-led energy transition.

The word of the week in Brussels was competitiveness. Monday kicked off with the European Solar Charter, while Enrico Letta published a long-awaited report on the state of the Single Market. So what happened, and what does it all mean for solar? Read on to explore, including a feature interview with Pierre-Emmanuel MARTIN , President of CARBON .

Policy Friday Focus: The European Solar Charter

Almost two years from the May 2022 publication of the EU Solar Strategy, the European Solar Charter was signed on 15 April 2024 in Brussels. Drafted by the European Commission, the 23 Member States, and around 100 solar companies, signed the Charter and committed to the support of Europe's solar manufacturing base. The Charter might sound familiar – rewind to this op-ed from February from SolarPower Europe in Euractiv calling for exactly that.

Today’s EU Solar Charter captures some of the main elements of our calls to support European manufacturers – though we continue to work for urgent action on the ground to retain and scale our solar manufacturing base.

The Charter asks companies – and crucially, the governments of EU Member States – to commit to:

• A series of voluntary actions, like including solar PV products in portfolios of relevant market players and incorporating resilience considerations in PV offtakers’ procurement strategies.
• To maintain and, where possible, expand the current production capacity in Europe, in line with expected growing demand for their products, based on the public and private commitments.
• An early implementation of the relevant Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) policies, and promotion of innovative forms of solar energy deployment, such as agri-PV, floating solar, infrastructure-integrated PV, vehicle-integrated PV or building-integrated PV.

We see the EU Solar Charter as a reinforcement to the reality that solar PV is now a mainstream energy technology. Ultimately, the Solar Charter is an important moment of recognition. The continent’s governments have made a high-level promise to our manufacturers, recognising their critical role in the strategic supply chains of today and tomorrow. Read our full reaction.

Letta Report

The long-awaited report from Enrico Letta is more than 140 pages long, and takes a 360? look at the EU Single Market. Read the whole thing here , or we’ve cherrypicked a couple of key points to explore, and how they might impact solar manufacturing.

• An overarching point that Letta makes is that the NZIA represents a crucial step forward, but its implementation needs to be comprehensive – which SolarPower Europe can get wholeheartedly behind. It's important that the Implementing Act of the NZIA ensures an easy to apply law, that's consistent across Europe and empowers early implementation to help European solar manufacturers reshoring. While Letta’s report talks about extending NZIA beyond its current scope, we continue to emphasise that focus is essential for industrial strategy. Given the very different starting points for clean tech value chains, we’re united with the wind sector on the importance of tailoring the implementation of the NZIA in renewable energy auctions to the needs of different supply chains (read our joint letter on that here ).
• Letta importantly highlights the importance of alleviating the tension between new industrial approaches and the Single Market framework, i.e. the EU’s industrial strategy must adopt a more European approach, building on and further developing the IPCEI model. This applies well to the approach the solar sector would like to take on inverters – catch up on that here , and watch this space.

• If you have heard anything from European manufacturers and SolarPower Europe in recent months and years, it’s that Europe needs to unlock State Aid subsidy rules to allow Member States to support the operational expenditure of factories. Letta makes a nod to the need to refine Europe’s approach to State Aid, while mobilising private investments; consequently the creation of the necessary political conditions to unleash another critical dimension: European public investments.

Industry Corner

With more industry players in town than usual, for the signing of the European Solar Charter, we took the opportunity to interview Pierre-Emmanuel MARTIN , Co-founder and President of CARBON as part of our #MakeSolarEU feature series. Highlights below, or read the full interview here.

So – how does CARBON feel about the European Solar Charter?

Through the European Solar Charter, governments recognise the decisive role of European solar manufacturers in the strategic supply chains of today and tomorrow: this is a significant mark of recognition for the entire sector! We advocate for swift action and concrete support measures at European level and within the Member States. Namely, applying resilience and sustainability criteria in tenders and public procurement as soon as possible, unlocking support for massive subsidies and establishing dedicated EU funding for solar. CARBON welcomes this new step towards a sovereign and competitive European photovoltaic industry. After the signing of the Solar Pact in France at the beginning of April, a whole dynamic is at work to relocalise, sustainably, the solar photovoltaic value chain in Europe!

What do we need from politicians to make European solar manufacturing happen?

Europe is unique, with multiple interests and multiple countries that want to arrive at consensus through democracy and debate. So, we must find a way to build something that is strong enough to meet the ambitious goal of delivering 40% of the solar PV components installed each year in Europe, using products made in Europe. We have this goal and we must find a way. I think that through the Net Zero Industry Act we have our first key piece, the Critical Raw Material Act is another one.

We are not the USA, that switches on policies very swiftly – we will see after the November elections the follow up on the Inflation Reduction Act. We are not India, deciding to stand on our own without any imports. We need the solar panels from China for the moment, but we need our own panels too. There is a way to manage this transition, not having 100% of our panels from China, but at least 40% from Europe by 2030.

So we need political stakeholders to understand that there is no reason for European gigafactories to be less competitive than Chinese ones once we are fully ramped up, at-scale and mastering our ecosystem; mainly the upstream parts. We must implement a regulatory framework that protects any investment in new gigafactories. We know that in France, it's already on the way. So that's why CARBON is really advanced. In Europe, we have to understand that if we want factories financed by private investors and banks, we must give a price premium to generate revenues that are high enough to meet their requirements.

Solarcoaster

The latest ups and downs in the EU solar manufacturing landscape.

ALARM BELLS - French Systovi goes bankrupt , ending 87 jobs and 80 MW in production capacity.

EXPANSION - Sunmaxx opens 50 MW PVT factory in Germany

REPORT - Dutch researchers analyse regional polysilicon requirements

INNOVATION - Italian startup is testing railway PV solutions

ALARM BELLS - Solar wafer prices take a dive

REPORT – IEA report - Clean energy is boosting economic growth

Solar Manufacturing Matters is a fortnightly newsletter on the European solar manufacturing landscape. Every other Friday, check out our latest EU policy analysis and a roundup of solar manufacturing market news.

From SolarPower Europe , the award-winning European trade association with over 300 members active at every point in the solar PV value chain.