Motivation of the Solar Industry Forum 2019
The Solar PV industry is worth 100 Billion EUR a year and growing at a rapid pace. With 98 GW installed in 2017, it has beaten year after year the most optimistic expectations and its potential remains largely untapped.
This strong PV market expansion has been contributing to save on fossil fuels consumption and mitigate environmental impacts in residential, commercial, industrial and power sectors. In this regard, promoting electrified vehicles is suggested as an effective option to reduce CO2 emissions.
Although the impact of PV on transportation is still quite limited and the expected role of PV is not clear at present, the potential is important and the acceleration of integrating PV to vehicles will contribute to improving energy and environmental performances of the transportation sector.
However, this rapidly expanding market creates numerous challenges for industry leaders, in Europe and globally. Rapidly decreasing module and system prices occur in a context of price instability of various input materials and components, partially caused by unstable supply and demand, highlighting the complexity of industry developments in a fast-changing world.
CEOs and CTOs active in the solar PV industry must cope with evolving competitiveness conditions, new market players, choice about technologies and production capacities which will evolve rapidly towards 10 GW for the largest competitors.
Today, most fairs and conferences are focused on the downstream market, with a clear emphasis on where and how to sell PV modules, inverters, and services. However, the solar PV industry spectrum is much broader than PV manufacturers only and develops its activities along the complete value chain.
While the Solar PV market is expanding fast and could reach more than 150 GW by 2020, the questions of the future of the PV industry remains a fascinating challenge. Where to manufacture, when to increase production capacities and how to identify disruptive innovations are some of the key questions that are not often debated in PV conferences and fairs.
The evolution of the technologies is rather well understood in laboratories and the policy aiming at developing the markets are better known but informing decision-makers within the manufacturing industry, from material suppliers to components producers remains a challenge.
The 3rd edition of the Solar Industry Forum will be the meeting point for all industry stakeholders to exchange cutting edge information and raise their knowledge about the future of the manufacturing industry in the solar PV sector.
The Solar Industry Forum is the event embedded within the EU PVSEC, providing an alternative path for attendees with an industry background, allowing them to attend EU PVSEC’s scientific sessions in parallel with the Solar Industry and Mobility Forum sessions.
These two-days forum is targeting high-level PV industry stakeholders with a mix of presentations and roundtable discussions involving key European and global speakers.
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