Becquerel, Holosolis and Oxford PV experts to speak at Solar Media’s Intersolar Europe panel

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Intersolar Europe 2024.
Gaëtan Masson, Bertrand Lecacheux, Ed Crossland, Sofi Hildonen and Nemanja Mikac will speak at the Solar Media panel. Image: Intersolar Europe.

European solar and battery manufacturing industries face a critical juncture. With both set to play a key role in the continent’s decarbonisation and energy security targets, but under considerable pressure from industry giants in China and the US, it is unclear how these industries can work towards realising these ambitions.

These will be the key topics of discussion at Solar Media’s panel conversation, ‘Make or break time for European PV and battery manufacturing’, to be hosted at this year’s Intersolar Europe event in Germany. To be held at the company’s stand in hall A4, booth 159, on at 3:30pm on Wednesday 7 May, the discussion will be chaired by journalists from both PV Tech and Energy-Storage.news.

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The discussion will feature five industry experts: Gaëtan Masson, CEO of the Becquerel Institute, whose longstanding expertise in European solar places him in the perfect position to discuss the challenges and opportunities for European manufacturing; Ed Crossland, chief technology officer at Oxford PV, whose production and commercial shipment of perovskite cells put the company at the forefront of cell innovation; and Bertrand Lecacheux, CEO of Holosolis, the company planning to build the largest module manufacturing factory in Europe, who can speak on the opportunities for module manufacturers.

They will be joined by two battery experts: Sofi Hildonen, executive vice president of business development at Elinor Batteries, which aims to build a 10GWh battery factory in Norway; and Nemanja Mikac, CEO of a ElevenEs, a Serbia-based company that opened its LFP gigafactory in 2023, one of the first in Europe.

These experts will discuss the role of clean energy manufacturing in Europe’s decarbonisation goals, the economic challenges and financial viability of large-scale solar and storage manufacturing compared to the well-established industries in the US and China, and the unique position of Europe between the two industrial giants amid the escalating imposition of tariffs between them.

Attendees can register for the panel for free at this link, and and all are welcome to hear what the panellists have to say, participate in a question-and-answer session with the speakers, and to continue their conversations after the hour-long panel ends at Solar Media’s stand.

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