While the European demand for Solar PV soars, why hasn’t the Solar PV industry raced forward to scale up? The conundrum is that European companies and investors face a high business risk in establishing a sustainable solar upstream manufacturing value chain.
Over the past two years, Norwegian Crystals has been providing thought leadership around the rebuilding of the European Solar Value Chain. In this article, we discuss the PV industry’s mismatch to build at speed and scale, or what we have dubbed the ‘capacity synchronicity challenge’, and look at why European made PV-products need to demand a market premium, which then raises the issue of end users’ willingness to pay. Finally, we ask, what market mechanisms could be used to stimulate investment and reduce risk across the entire value chain?
