The European Technology and Innovation Platform Photovoltaics
met in Ljubljana, Slovenia
The joint annual meeting of the European Technology and Innovation Platform (ETIP) on Photovoltaics and the ETIP on Smartgrids was hailed by Jeroen Schuppers, deputy Head of Unit for Advanced Energy Production in DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission as “very timely and relevant [...] The event brings together two groups. Collaboration and cooperation is the main objective of the Energy Union.”
In September 2015 the European Commission presented a new Integrated Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan in order to accelerate the transformation of the European energy system.
As outlined in the current implementation plan of the Solar Europe Industry Initiative, the photovoltaic (PV) industry is committed to improving the long-term performance of connected plants. This requires important efforts along the whole value chain, from material and hardware production to operation and maintenance.
The Workshop “Reaching out for opportunities in Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV)” was successfully held yesterday in the CCH Congress Centre Hamburg as an official parallel event of the 31 st European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC 2015).
PV electricity is already competitive with retail power prices in some European countries. This is mainly the result of an impressive PV module price reduction, which corresponded to 80% in the period 2008-2014.
Since April 2015 EUREC has facilitated discussions on the governance of the SET Plan between today’s European Technology Platforms dealing directly in renewable energy supply technologies and in the architecture and requirements of Europe’s future energy system (EBTP, RHC-Platform, EU PV TP, ETP Smartgrids). Following a meeting between these ETPs and the European Commission on 8 June, these ETPs sent the ‘Main messages’ below to the EC for it to consider before finalisation of the Communication on an integrated SET Plan, scheduled for adoption in September.
