In May 2022, the European Commission adopted a new EU Solar Energy Strategy aiming to ensure that solar energy achieves its full potential in helping to meet the European Green Deal’s climate and energy targets. An indicative goal of the strategy is to reach nearly 600 GW of installed solar PV capacity by 2030. While Europe is a pioneer in the definition of new policy requirements to ensure the circularity and sustainability of PV products, its manufacturing capacities are limited. The EU mostly imports PV modules from China, which for the last decade has remained the global leader in PV manufacturing across the supply chain. This article aims to provide insight into the solar PV industry and the surrounding policy context, focusing on the manufacturing phase and its climate impact. It provides a comparative overview of the key players in the European and Chinese PV markets with an overview of the whole supply chain (i.e. production of polysilicon, cells, wafers and modules). In addition, the authors performed a simplified analysis of the suitability of the PV manufacturing process today, and indicate the opportunities for the net-zero transition in the future. While the focus is on the carbon impacts of the solar PV industry, the authors also identify other relevant aspects (such as circularity), laying the ground for a future research.

ARCIPOWSKA Aleksandra;  BLANCO PEREZ Sara;  JAKIMOW-CANTON Malgorzata;  BALDASSARRE Brian;  POLVERINI Davide;  CABRERA M.; 

2026-06-12

WILEY

JRC134997

1062-7995 (online),    1099-159X (print),   

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pip.3797,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC134997,   

10.1002/pip.3797 (online),