The European Commission formally launched the European Solar PV
Industry Alliance (ESIA) at a high-level conference in Brussels on
December 9, 2022.

The alliance will scale up EU solar manufacturing and will promote
investment in large-scale factories, aiming for 30 GW of manufacturing of
each key solar component, annually, by 2025 – more than six times the
current average capacity of around 4.5 GW. 

The ultimate goal will be to strengthen the solar industry’s competitive
position as the demand for solar PV continues to accelerate in Europe and
around the world.
Boosting manufacturing competitiveness will also require a diversification of
the international PV value chain and sources of supply for products,
components, and raw materials. This is in line with RESiLEX’s objective to
reduce the EU’s dependence on critical raw materials for the production of
solar cells.

During the alliance’s launch, EU Commissioner for the Internal Market,
Thierry Breton, emphasised that “95 percent of the global polysilicon and
ingots are currently manufactured by China,” and stressed the importance
of “decrease[ing] supply chain dependencies.” It is essential to secure
supply chains while reducing the environmental footprint of the entire value
chain.

RESiLEX, funded by HorizonEurope, is committed to strengthening each
component of the silicon value chain by demonstrating 8 industry-driven
innovative solutions. This includes the mining and processing of raw
materials, the optimisation and recycling of PV modules, and the reuse of
silicon for lion batteries.

Francisco J. Luque , Consortiums leader of the RESiLEX project from the
Iberian Sustainable Mining Cluster, confirms the importance of the launch
of the Industry Alliance: “The launch of ESIA reflects the important role of
innovative solutions for the silicon value chain whether it concerns mining,
sustainable production or recycling of silicon. I strongly believe that it will
foster the EU’s objective to increase its manufacturing capacity to 30 GW
by 2025 across the entire PV value chain.”

The inclusion of the project partner SolarPower Europe in the ESIA
steering committee will allow synergies to be fostered between the alliance
and the RESiLEX project as well as ensure that research results are
disseminated and leveraged.

Re-watch the presentation of the initiative here