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All articles of topic supply chain

Stefan Bahamonde, CEO and founder of Swiss BESS manufacturer Libattion.

Expert analysis: “Battery storage needs to be as lucrative to make as it is to use”

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What is driving the dynamic battery storage market in Europe? What are the risks? How important is European manufacturing and a circular economy? Stefan Bahamonde, CEO and founder of Libattion, shares his point of view.

Dissuced the SSI at the Sustainable Solar Europe Conference in Brussels: (from left) Alexia Ruvoletto (Solar Stewardship Initiative), Andrew Williams (Canadian Solar), Andrea Wainer (REN21) Guido Agostinelli (IFC/World Bank Group), Rachel Lock (DNV), Dries Acke (SolarPower Europe).

Solar Stewardship Initiative: Supply Chain Traceability Standard published

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The Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) has reached a milestone in its mission to create end-to-end transparency and promote responsible practices across the solar value chain with the publication of its Supply Chain Traceability Standard. It was unveiled last week at Sustainable Solar Europe Conference in Brussels.

In Yiwu (China) Trinasolar manufactures its Vertex solar modules.

Solar Stewardship Initiative: First ESG assessments successfully completed

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The Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) completed its first Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) assessments, with additional ones already ongoing. Two manufacturing sites of Trinasolar have been certified.

Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, will be one of the speakers at Sustainable Solar Europe 2024, December 12, in Brussels.

PV Europe and SolarPower Europe partner to promote Sustainable Solar Europe 2024

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PV Europe and SolarPower Europe are delighted to announce their media partnership for the upcoming Sustainable Solar Europe 2024 in Brussels, a flagship event of SolarPower Europe in cooperation with Intersolar Europe.

 Perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cells.
European Commission

Co-programmed research partnership for solar announced

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The European Commission has published its ‘Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025-2027,’ where it decided to form an official Co-Programmed European Partnership for solar with the European Technology and Innovation Platform (ETIP PV).

 Longi strenghtens its supply chain throug a long-term agreement with Ferroglobe.
Manufacturing

Longi/Ferroglobe: silicon long-term agreement

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Chinese PV module and cell manfacturer Longi and London based Ferroglobe PLC, producer of Silicon Metal and Ferroalloys, have entered into a long-term supply agreement.

 Overview of Meyer Burger's PV module production in Freiberg/Germany.
Manufacturing

End of European PV production?

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The PV market is booming. But European manufacturers are in crisis mode due to the overwhelmingly favourable competition from China. Companies such as Meyer Burger are threatening to close down module production. They are calling for resilience bonuses, among other incentives.

 The Spanish government wants to foster the clean-tech supply chain and PV manufacturing with a new initiative.
Manufacturing

Spain: New incentives to promote clean-tech supply chain

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Spain has introduced a new incentive scheme aimed at strengthening its clean-tech supply chain, including PV manufacturing. The initiative is endorsed by the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC).

The 2023 Global Energy Perspective report of McKinsey reveals bottlenecks and opportunities of low carbon renewable- energies globally.
McKinsey

Accelerating the journey to net zero

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Analysis from McKinsey & Company’s 2023 Global Energy Perspective report shows that tackling energy transition technology bottlenecks with substitute materials, innovation, infrastructure build out and regulation will be crucial to achieving net zero targets

Prices for solar modules have dropped by about a third compared to the beginning of the year.
Module prices

Stabilisation of solar module prices seems to be in sight

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Module prices continue to fall, but not as fast as in the past weeks. There are signs that the downward slide is slowly coming to an end. Because at the current prices, no one is earning anything.

Hybrid power plants with PV, wind and battery storage are in vogue in Europe, but the dependency especially on Chinese imports of key components and raw materials is very high.
Manufacturing

Resilience of supply chains as Achilles' heel

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The resilience of supply chains for key technologies for the energy transition, such as photovoltaics and wind power, is in a poor state in Europe. Import dependency, especially on China, is immensely high. A study shows this and gives recommendations.

Solaredge needs a lot of micro chips for its products. Infineon will continue to supply them in the future.
Supply chains

Solaredge sures up its chip supply chain with Infineon

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Solaredge has signed a multi-year agreement with Infineon to supply chips for its solar and storage products. New product development is also on the agenda.

BayWa r.e.  Solar Trade is expanding its warehouses with a new climate-neutral hub at Wanssum container port/NL.
Netherlands

Fully climate-neutral PV logistics centre

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BayWa r.e. Solar Trade and Seacon Logistics will develop a Netherlands based fully climate-neutral logistics centre with over 50,000 m² of storage capacity for photovoltaic components.

Chinese producers and Chinese demand strongly determine the global prices for solar modules. Our guest author Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar, is giving insights.
Supply chain

PV module prices towards 'old normal'

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Due to artificial silicon price increase of the Chinese producers, Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar, sees the solar module price returning to the 'old normal' of about 0.25 euros per watt peak.

SMA

More turnover generated - despite lower sales figures

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SMA increased its turnover by 8.4 per cent in 2022. The company started the new year with a huge order backlog and expects turnover to continue to rise.

The EU Commission wants to push European PV manufacturing.
European PV manufacturing

ESMC welcomes state aid flexibilities for accelerated investments in strategic sectors

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European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) responds to the proposals of the European Commission adopted amending the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER), and the proposed Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework (TCTF).

Module production at Solarwatt in Dresden/Germany.
European PV Manufacturing

Module supply chain: buy, make or be-ready-to-make?

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How to protect the European PV industry from supply interruptions and price increases? The concept of bringing PV module manufacturing back to Europe has been recently gaining traction among industry leaders. However, the discussion is light on numbers, making it difficult to understand the trade-offs for the key stakeholders.

BloombergNEF

Battery pack prices rise for first time since 2010

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BloombergNEF’s annual battery price survey finds that prices have increased by 7 per cent from 2021 to 2022. This has been the first price rise since the survey began 12 years ago.

Residential PV installation in Ireland.
BHC Distributors

Ireland: „The solar PV market is maturing“

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Interview: Neil McKee, member of the leadership team of BHC Distributors Ltd about exploding energy prices, the growing PV market in Ireland, supply chain bottlenecks and quality aspects. The company is a Premium Partner Gold of Solarwatt.

Sustainable Solar Europe is taking place 27 October 2022.
Conference Sustainable Solar Europe

A 360⁰ perspective on solar sustainability

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The conference Sustainable Solar Europe takes place in Brussels, 27 October, organized by Intersolar Europe and SolarPower Europe.

Test laboratory for high-efficiency solar modules at the Freiberg site (Germany) of Meyer Burger.
  Manufacturing

PV-Equipment: European orders higher than Asian orders first time

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European orders for photovoltaic equipment increased by 62 percent in the second quarter of 2022, VDMA (Mechanical Engineering Industry Association, Germany) reports.

Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar.
Supply chain

China freezes polysilicon prices, resulting in falling transport costs

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Last week it was reported that the ABN AMRO Transition Commodity Price Index had fallen by 22 percent in the 21 weeks leading up to it. That doesn’t seem to match with the stories about the ever-rising prices of Chinese polysilicon, but that too has stabilized. Even if it is artificial, our guest author Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar explains: "They just capped the price."

The Solar Stewardship Initiative, launched by SolarPower Europe and Solar Energy UK, is a solar-specific supply chain assurance scheme.
Corporate responsibility

Solar industry pushes sustainability supply chain initiative 

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In the context of EU legislative proposals on corporate responsibility in supply chains, the European solar industry has published its concrete plan towards a more responsible, transparent, and sustainable value chain.

„Although it is still at a very early stage, there could well be the possibility that we will also manufacture in Europe in the future“, says Moritz Rolf, Director at Sungrow EMEA .
Sungrow

„We are not in a situation where we cannot deliver“

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Interview: Moritz Rolf, Director Central & Eastern Europe, Sungrow EMEA, talks about new products and applications, supply chain issues, costs, sustainability and a possible future production in Europe.

Europe's first lithium converter with a capacity of 24,000 tonnes per year is scheduled to start as early as 2024.
Sustainability:

Rock Tech Lithium to produce carbon-neutral lithium

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Rock Tech Lithium has agreed to collaborate with Fraunhofer Umsicht and supply chain tracking company Circulor to provide carbon-neutral lithium from Europe.