How much »clean-tech« industry does Europe need? Public presentation of the Agora study

The study presented last week by Berlin-based Agora Energiewende, Agora Industry and consultancy Roland Berger on the EU’s need for its own production capacity to secure the energy transition (»Ensuring resilience in Europe's energy transition«) will be presented in a free webinar on Wednesday (September 20, 10.30 CET). The study concludes that Europe needs to significantly expand its domestic capacity for products such as solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, heat pumps and electrolyers, and increase the public funding earmarked for this purpose. With the sums currently budgeted, the goals of the EU’s »Net Zero Industry Act« cannot be achieved.
Two scenarios with very different totals were calculated for the study, one with EU-wide coordination and one with »a nationally-led approach.« According to the study, public funding of ten to 30 billion euros (10.7 to 32 billion Dollar) should be provided by 2027 to secure supply chains through the required upscaling of EU capacity, and 33 to 94 billion euros (35.2 to 100.2 billion Dollar) are needed from 2028 to 2034. According to the study, a »significant share« of this will be needed to reduce operational costs.
In photovoltaics, as everywhere else outside China with its consistently above 80 percent share of global production capacities, the gap between target and credit is particularly large. The EU should be able to meet 55 percent of its demand for wafers itself, 50 percent for solar cells and 51 percent for modules. Currently, these three areas have two, four and – after all – 28 percent available.
Matthias Buck, European Director at Agora Energiewende, will present the key findings of the study in the webinar. A recording of the event will also be publicly available a few days later.
© PHOTON