Since the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the EU together with the United States imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia, and in the energy “de-Russification” road all the way to run wild. The short construction period and flexible application scenarios of photovoltaic has become the first choice to increase local energy in Europe, supported by policies such as REPowerEU, European PV demand has shown explosive growth.
The latest report of the European Photovoltaic Association (SolarPower Europe) shows that, according to preliminary statistics, in 2022, the EU 27 new PV installations 41.4GW, compared to 28.1GW in 2021, a strong increase of 47%, last year’s annual new installations is more than twice the amount of 2020. The report concludes that the EU PV market will continue to grow at a rapid pace in the coming years, with optimistic expectations that new installations will reach 68GW in 2023 and nearly 119GW in 2026.
      The European Photovoltaic Association said that the record PV market performance in 2022 far exceeded expectations, 38% or 10GW higher than the association’s forecast a year ago, and 16% or 5.5GW higher than the optimistic scenario forecast made in December 2021.
      Germany remains the largest incremental PV market in the EU, with 7.9GW of new installations in 2022, followed by Spain (7.5GW), Poland (4.9GW), the Netherlands (4GW) and France (2.7GW), with Portugal and Sweden replacing Hungary and Austria among the top 10 markets. Germany and Spain will also be the leaders in incremental PV in the EU over the next four years, adding 62.6GW and 51.2GW of installed capacity from 2023-2026, respectively.
      The report highlights that the cumulative installed PV capacity in EU countries in 2030 will far exceed the 2030 PV installation target set by the European Commission’s REPowerEU program in both the intermediate and optimistic forecast scenarios.
      Labor shortage is the main bottleneck facing the European PV industry in the second half of 2022. The European Photovoltaic Association suggests that to ensure continued stable growth in the EU PV market, a significant expansion in the number of installers, ensuring regulatory stability, strengthening the transmission network, simplifying administrative approvals and building a stable and reliable supply chain are needed.