Growing community opposition to solar developments and high capital costs will pose major challenges for the European solar industry in the coming year.
Despite some ups and downs, the industry worldwide made steady progress in 2024, surpassing the 2TW capacity limit by the end of the year, just two years after reaching 1TW.
Financial and development experts participate a webinar organized this week by Solar energy portal publisher Solar Media was asked to give their opinion on the biggest challenges and opportunities for the sector this year.
Chairing the discussion, Sonia Dunlop, CEO of the Global Solar Council, highlighted the sector’s progress by 2024, which, in addition to reaching the 2 TW milestone, attracted investments of around half a trillion dollars.
But the industry experts at the webinar – developer Lightsource bp, investor Infrared Capital Partners, bank Santander and asset manager NTR – highlighted a number of challenges that are expected to persist into 2025.
Alex DeSouza, general counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Lightsource bp, highlighted the knock-on effects of local opposition to projects on development costs and timelines.
“What I see with my legal hat on are some of the challenges at the beginning of the development process and … the consequences of not having proper community involvement,” DeSouza said.
“The community’s opposition to projects that they believe have not been properly developed… has an immediate impact on all of us because of the timelines,” DeSouza added. “Community involvement costs money and this clearly increases development costs, driving up costs across the board.”
The webinar can now be viewed.
All panelists will be present at Solar Media’s annual meeting Solar financing and investments Europe event in London on February 4 and 5, 2025. For more details, visit the website.
A delve deeper into the webinar discussion was first published on our sister site, PV technology.
