European PV manufacturing ‘house is on fire’, ESMC calls for IRA-style measures to support production

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
The ESMC called for an extension on the EU’s 2025 PV manufacturing target to reach 80GW capacity by 2030. Image: Meyer Burger.

Europe needs to galvanise a competitive PV manufacturing ecosystem in the same vein as the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), according to the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC).

The ESMC, a representative body for the European PV manufacturing industry, outlined its desires for a more expansive programme of support and investment into manufacturing in a letter to the European Commission ahead of the launch of the European Solar PV Alliance on 9 December.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

The letter, which can be read here, outlined eight proposals described as “fast, concrete, mature and comprehensive” measures to maximise the success of the alliance. The top-line request was an alignment with the proposals of the US IRA, to be delivered either through tax incentives or direct grants to manufacturing projects.

The letter said that “on a global scale, the European PV manufacturing industry currently is almost non-existing, due to fierce competition and an unlevel playing field”.

The European Solar PV Alliance will aim to address these concerns, and secretary general Johan Lindahl of the ESMC said: “This marks an important cornerstone in developing a competitive European PV manufacturing industry across the full PV value chain.”

The ESMC said it welcomed the EU’s target of 30GW of PV manufacturing by 2025, but proposed a greater, extended target of 80GW by 2030.

It asked for a €20 billion (US$20.9 billion) special finance vehicle to de-risk investments and allow for greater resilience, akin to the European Chips Act that was introduced to bolster the bloc’s resilience and competitiveness in semiconductor technology.

The proposal letter also highlighted significant offtake agreements as a key measure for developing a European manufacturing culture, to drive demand for locally manufactured PV in the face of the significant incentives given in other countries. This year, India has seen an extended pair of incentives – the basic customs duty tariff on module and cell imports and the production-linked incentive scheme, which aims at adding 65GW of manufacturing capacity.

A further measure was the removal of permitting red tape for manufacturing plants. Earlier this year, the EU introduced an emergency regulation under the REPowerEU scheme that mandated shorter permitting times for PV deployments. The ESMC expressed a desire for an extension of this principle of ‘positive administrative silence’ to manufacturing permits.

“Supportive policies are the backbone of the competitiveness of the European PV industry,” said Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, policy director at ESMC.

“The European PV manufacturing ‘house is on fire’ in a view of the urgency created by the US IRA.”

PV Tech recently examined the role that domestic European manufacturing could play in addressing the concerns around the traceability of Chinese-imported modules, as well as the economic incentives around market sustainability and energy prices that major players in the European market have highlighted.

You can read the full list of the ESMC’s proposals in detail here.

25 November 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Large Scale Solar Central and Eastern Europe continues to be the place to leverage a network that has been made over more than 10 years, to build critical partnerships to develop solar projects throughout the region.
2 December 2025
Málaga, Spain
Understanding PV module supply to the European market in 2026. PV ModuleTech Europe 2025 is a two-day conference that tackles these challenges directly, with an agenda that addresses all aspects of module supplier selection; product availability, technology offerings, traceability of supply-chain, factory auditing, module testing and reliability, and company bankability.
10 March 2026
Frankfurt, Germany
The conference will gather the key stakeholders from PV manufacturing, equipment/materials, policy-making and strategy, capital equipment investment and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out PV manufacturing out to 2030 and beyond.

Read Next

June 30, 2025
Voting on the US tax reconciliation bill is expected to begin in the Senate today, following a draft published on Friday that hit clean energy tax credits hard.
June 30, 2025
Australian module manufacturer Tindo Solar has secured a 30MW solar module supply agreement to power Australia's first "net zero pipeline”.
June 27, 2025
Renewables investment platform Nexwell Power has signed a round of power purchase agreements (PPAs) with “one of the largest” US tech companies for solar PV capacity to be built in Spain.
Premium
June 27, 2025
PV Talk: '2024 was a transformational year in terms of energy policy,' says Monika Paplaczyk ahead of this year's Clean Power 2030 Summits.
June 26, 2025
A group of minority shareholders in Norwegian silicon firm REC Silicon has triggered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the closure of the company’s US polysilicon production site.
June 26, 2025
Nextracker will supply solar tracker systems to a 550MW solar PV project in the Greek province of Western Macedonia, owned by Greek renewables developer PPC Renewables.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Webinars
June 30, 2025
10am PST / 6pm BST
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK
Media Partners, Solar Media Events
July 2, 2025
Bangkok, Thailand
Media Partners, Solar Media Events
September 2, 2025
Mexico City, Mexico