The solar industry raises alarm bells in Europe due to the sharp drop in costs

The solar industry has set off alarm bells in the Old Continent due to the sharp drop in the costs of solar modules in recent months. Although the decrease in costs is usually good news to accelerate the energy transition, it has now become bad news for European manufacturers, since, as they have stated, it has led them to "a precarious situation."

Since the beginning of the year, the prices of photovoltaic modules have fallen by more than 25%, reaching below 0.15 euros per square meter in the case of low-cost products, even below the levels prior to the crisis. According to the urgent letter sent to Brussels yesterday from SolarPower Europe, a European association that represents the entire value chain of solar photovoltaic energy, “this is creating concrete risks of companies becoming insolvent, since their stocks They will have to be devalued. “We have already seen bullion producer Norwegian Crystals file for bankruptcy on August 21, 2023.”

And they add that “if immediate measures are not taken, this situation will make the European ambition of creating an Open Strategic Autonomy, in key sectors such as solar photovoltaic, extremely difficult to achieve. The European Union’s goal of offshoring 30 GW of the solar PV supply chain, as set out in the Net Zero Industry Act and adopted by the European Solar Industry Alliance, is at serious risk.”

Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, explained that “while price drops are usually good news, if left unchecked they have serious repercussions for our open strategic autonomy. In the short term, this is already posing real challenges to domestic competitiveness and the renaissance of EU solar manufacturing. We urgently call on EU leaders to save Europe’s strategic technology supply lines.”