The annual European photovoltaic solar energy conference (EU PVSEC) started today, this year in Bilbao. Conversations on the first morning were aimed at the need for strong policy support in several areas of renewable energy. Although the week will certainly be filled with new ideas on the technological side, it is clear that guaranteeing the policy to support further growth of renewable energy is a growing challenge. Those who work in the solar industry and research community must reach a wider audience, and one that may not be so easy to convince.
The opening -scientific presentations on the 42ND Edition of EUPVSEC caused a Whistlestop tour through some of the many areas that now influence solar energy, which is quickly moved from Agrivoltaic and the vineyards from Spain to feeding spacecraft to the outer planets of our solar system.
Applications such as these show the many different industries and areas that can benefit from solar energy. But the session was quickly brought to earth when the discussions turned to politics. Solar’s growth also means that it is influenced by the policy in many different areas, which means that it pleading for the right policy to ensure continuous investments in renewable energy sources and away from fossil fuels becomes a more difficult job, with more people to convince and established interests to navigate. The solar industry is increasingly preached to the unconcerned “in attempts to secure his own future, as Helmholtz Zentrum’s Rutger Schlatmann told the public this morning.
Becquerel Prize
The harder for lawyers was well reflected in the award of the Becqurel prize this year to Solarpower Europe CEO Walburga Hemetsberger. She accepted the prize and noted that although the Solar success story must be celebrated in recent years, new challenges are emerging in the form of raster infrastructure that is unable to keep the installation speed of renewable energy sources, and slow progress in bringing large-scale PV production to European coasts that happens quickly.
Hemetsberger also noted that the threat of a change in policy priorities that appear in many regions is a real threat to progress for the solar industry. She spoke about the need for the entire sector to unite in challenging misconceptions about solar energy and efforts to maintain an outdated system aimed at fossil fuels. “Solar is security, Solar is competitive,” she told the audience earlier today.
Policy support
The discussion of policy support continued with a presentation by Becquerel Institute CEO Gaëtan Masson, who noticed that PV has come so far, thanks to not least in “smart policy and public acceptance”.
He also pointed out that established interests such as the fossil fuel industry are still able to exert a lot of influence on policy. He pointed out that the International Energy Agency recently stopped announcing his prediction of a peak in oil production by 2030, and that analysis found more than 34,000 messages on various social media platforms that renewable energy sources wrongly blamed for the Black -Out that many days earlier this year influenced.
He also noted that local production in Europe is a must, and that states have to intervene here and offer guarantees here. Setting up solar production on each scale would require enormous financing, and given the number of high-profile bankruptcies in the sector in the sector in recent years would be too high risk to rely on risk capital.
The collection meal of the opening session of the morning is that solar energy is now running the risk of being “policy-driven to a policy-restricted market”, as Masson expressed it. And the best ways to prevent this result are a focus for discussion during the 5-day conference in Bilbao this week.
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