The ETIP PV – SEC project started in October 2016 and ended in September 2018. During these two years, the ETIP PV Secretariat:
- Supported ETIP PV to reach consensus on priorities, strategies, and R&I investment advice and taking these to decision-makers in the European Commission, Member States and Associated Countries;
- Provided support in keeping the PV community connected to parallel advisory bodies (ETIPs, notably) concerned with complementary aspects of the energy system
- Fostered cohesion of the stakeholders involved in the PV sector and related sectors through the organization of regular meetings of the members of ETIP PV and of meetings with stakeholders outside ETIP PV in the form of public workshops or conferences.
The Secretariat disseminated the ETIP PV results in the form of written reports and through public workshops and conferences. The main results of the ETIP PV – SEC project are summarized below.
1. Urgent Call for Action to Ensure a Sustainable Future for European PV Manufacturing:
In June 2017, ETIP PV together with EUREC and SolarUnited initiated a call for urgent action to maintain solar R&D and EU manufacturing and to take further opportunities for Europe. The initiative was supported by more than 100 European research centers, equipment suppliers, materials providers, and module manufacturers.
2. Recommendations of the working groups in the form of published reports:
The recommendations of the ETIP PV cover the areas of Building Integrated Photovoltaics, Photovoltaics Levelized Cost of Electricity, penetration of PV into power grids and industrial policy. The ETIP PV working groups have published a total of six reports since October 2016:
- Building Integrated Photovoltaics as a core element for Smart Cities – Integrated Research, Innovation and Competitiveness Strategies within the Energy Union
- The true competitiveness of solar PV. A European case study
- Assessing the need for better forecasting and observability of PV
- PV manufacturing in Europe
- Supporting the Development of the European PV Industry and Markets through Enhanced Quality
- PV Quality and Economy
3. ETIP PV conferences and workshops
ETIP PV has organized succesfully the following events
- ‘PV Manufacturing’ Conference on 18&19 May 2017 in Brussels, Belgium
- 'Innovation in Solar Building Skins & Energy Efficiency towards Sustainable Cities developments’ workshop on 7 September 2017 in Brussels, Belgium
- ‘Building Integrated Photovoltaics: where Energy Efficiency meets Building Aesthetics’ workshop on 19&20 March 2018 in Berlin, Germany
- ‘Quality and sustainability of PV Systems’ Conference on 3 May 2018 in Brussels, Belgium
All the ETIP PV reports can be downloaded for free from the ETIP PV website at www.etip-pv.eu. The proceedings and presentations of the ETIP PV events are also available on the website.
Dissemination has been one of the central activities within the ETIP PV – SEC project. The main target groups of the dissemination activities were the European Commission and the Member States, the Members of the ETIP PV, the PV stakeholders such as industry and academia, the public sector and civil society organisations. To maximise the impact outside the network of the ETIP PV, the documents prepared within the ETIP PV were disseminated at the most relevant events for the PV community such as the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition and the Intersolar, the European Sustainable Energy Week and other general assemblies of platforms related to PV (eg. Smart Networks for Energy Transition (ETIP SNET)). The wider public was reached thanks to the publication of press releases and of non-technical documents such as fact sheets about Photovoltaics written in an easy-to-understand language.
