European Union

In 2023, the Renewable Energy Directive was reviewed. The amending Directive EU/2023/2413 entered into force on 20 November 2023. There was an 18-month period to transpose most of the directive’s provisions into national law, with a shorter deadline by July 2024 for some provisions related to permitting for renewables.  Permit-granting procedures for renewable energy projects, including for solar energy became shorter and simpler. The Directive also asked Member States to designate renewables acceleration areas for at least one renewable energy technology where renewable energy projects would benefit from simplified permit-granting procedures. The Commission issued practical guidance to Member States on designating renewables acceleration areas in 2024. 

The revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, which entered into force in 2024, introduced a phased-in obligation for certain categories of buildings to install solar energy and a specific requirement for all new buildings to be “solar ready”. The Commission is currently preparing guidance for Member States to efficiently deliver the requirements of the EPBD. 

Several measures have been taken to further support the European solar PV manufacturing sector. 

In 2023 and 2024, European solar module manufacturers have faced a particular challenge due to a sharp drop in the prices of imported panels. To ensure that the green transition and the European manufacturing objectives go hand in hand, the European Commission, 23 Member States and industry representatives signed on 15 April 2024 the European Solar Charter. The Charter sets out a series of immediate, voluntary actions that are to be undertaken to support the EU solar PV manufacturing sector. 

The Net-Zero Industry Act Regulation (NZIA), which provides a regulatory framework to boost the competitiveness of EU net-zero industry, including solar PV, entered into force in June 2024. It comprises a benchmark aiming that by 2030, the manufacturing capacity in the EU of strategic net-zero technologies approaches or reaches at least 40% of the EU’s annual deployment needs. The NZIA intends to ease conditions for investing in net-zero technologies by simplifying permit-granting procedures, applying non-price criteriaand supporting strategic projects. The Commission is currently preparing the secondary legislation to ensure consistent and transparent implementation across EU Member States. 

HORIZON-CL5-2024-D3-01-01: Alternative equipment and processes for advanced manufacturing of PV technologies. The aim was to demonstrate alternative processes and equipment for PV manufacturing with reduced CAPEX, OPEX, energy and material consumption, and to increase the productivity and sustainability of large-scale PV manufacturing equipment and processing. 

HORIZON-CL5-2024-D3-01-02: Low-power PV with the aim to validate novel and low-environmental impact PV materials, PV architectures and suitable substrates for specific low power applications that consider the light intensity, light spectrum, and the application itself. 

HORIZON-CL5-2024-D3-02-05: PV-integrated electric mobility applications with the aim to a) demonstrate Vehicle Integrated PV concepts (VIPV), including different cell, interconnection and encapsulation technologies (with high efficiency under lower and varying lighting conditions) having a flexible design (size, shape/curvature, lightweight, aesthetics) and with PV providing a significant part of the vehicle’s energy consumption under various climatic conditions; and b) demonstrate PV Charging Stations (EVs, electric buses, etc.) able to provide a significant part of the charging demand despite the PV intermittence, guarantee the balance of the public grid, and reduce the public grid energy cost. 

HORIZON-CL5-2024-D3-02-06: Innovative, Community-Integrated PV systems with the aim to demonstrate innovative community-aggregated PV systems to facilitate the energy transition to a low carbon economy. 

HORIZON-CL5-2024-D3-02-07: Resource Efficiency of PV in Production, Use and Disposal, with the aim to identify the main areas of improvement for the environmental footprint and resource efficiency of PV.  

The total EC financing for the above-mentioned topics was EUR 57 million. 

In addition, a co-programmed partnership in Solar PV has been included in the second Horizon Europe strategic plan 2025-2027. This partnership brings together the PV industry and research community as well as the European Commission to define the research agenda for solar photovoltaics within the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025-2027 on Climate Energy and Mobility. The objective of the partnership is to align European R&I funding with industrial R&I priorities, ensuring that public support for research can quickly translate into private sector efforts to bring innovation to the market.  

The partnership builds on the European Technology and Innovation Platform and the various associations that structure the PV R&I landscape (SolarPowerEurope, EERA-PV JP, ESMC, EUREC, PVthin).  

The NZIA refers to the goal of the European Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance of reaching 30 GWp of annual solar PV manufacturing capacity across the value chain by 2025. This objective is currently surpassed for inverters (82 GWp in 2023) and close to be achieved for polysilicon (29 GWp in 2024). However, the situation is different for other parts of the value chain. The current EU PV manufacturing capacity for ingots and wafers is below 1 GWp, below 3 GWp for cells and for modules, with indications that actual production in 2023 was around 2 GWp for the latter. Overall, the EU is heavily dependent on PV imports from China, where 91% of the global commissioned manufacturing facilities are situated. In contrast, the EU, US and India each count for a respective share of 1%.  

The cost of producing a PV module is estimated to be about 60% higher in the European Union than in China. Additional challenges for European manufacturers are high inventory levels and oversupply from China driving a sharp decline of spot market module prices, which decreased over 25% year-on-year to EUR 0.105/Wp in January 2025. While this decrease in prices pushes deployment, it puts high pressure on manufacturers. Facilities producing cells and modules are seeing low average utilisation rates of around 50% globally. 

Overall, EU PV manufactures are struggling to compete globally, particularly on price. The concentration of PV manufacturing capacity in a single country, China, creates risks for the resilience of the value chain and price stability.  

The EU still has a strong role in research and innovation on solar PV especially with regard to specific PV applications such as PV integrated in buildings, agriculture, infrastructure or vehicles6.  

For the EU to gain competitiveness in PV manufacturing, it would need to scale-up innovative technologies in large gigawatt-scale factories that are integrated across the value chain