“The time of excess solar cell and module production capacity is coming to an end,” said Prof Eicke Weber, Director of Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Freiburg, Germany) and speaker for the European Gigawatt Fab initiative known as ‘X-GW’ at the Annual Conference of the European Photovoltaic Technology Platform on June 24th, 2014 in Brussels

“Europe needs to be ready in 3-4 years to manufacture cutting edge, next generation technology cost effectively, which means with extensive use of automation and at GW scale.”

110 people including five representatives from the European Commission (EC) gathered in Brussels to discuss the future of large-scale PV manufacturing in Europe.

Standard technology will not be competitive

The focus has to be on advanced technology, stressed Vidmantas Janulevičius, CEO of BOD Group (which has recently invested in a 70 MW PV cell line and a 50 MW glass-glass BIPV module line in Lithuania): “Producing standard technology will not be competitive.”

Bonifacio García Porras (representing DG Enterprise) shared the view of Vidmantas Janulevičius and Prof Eicke Weber that manufacturing creates high-value jobs and sustains research, development and innovation excellence.

Light at the end of the tunnel

The European Investment Bank has seen some of its PV financings go bad but Jochen Hierl (who works in the Bank’s Due Diligence department) saw light at the end of the tunnel: “The sector has been in crisis, but people now need to understand that new opportunities may be appearing.”

PV is now a multi-GW segment

The Chairman of the EU PV Technology Platform, Prof Wim Sinke, concluded: “PV is here to stay. The market is now so huge compared to just a few years ago – tens of GW – that what we once called a niche is now a multi-GW segment. Technology development in PV will increasingly respond to the needs of these different segments.”

Ideas from the Conference will be developed further in one of several works planned by the Platform in the coming months, in particular a report analysing strategy and policy for the European PV manufacturing industry.