We are pleased to announce the successful presentation of our report ‘Solar PV Resilient Supply Chains: Need for International Collaboration in Solar Manufacturing’ as part of a High-level Conference on New Technologies for Clean Energy Transition, organized by ISA in collaboration with the MNRE, Government of India, ADB, and the International Solar Energy Society on the sidelines of the Sixth Session of the ISA Assembly, on 1st November 2023.
The session was graced by Dr. Ajay Mathur (Director General, ISA), Mr. Dinesh Jagdale (Joint Secretary, MNRE), Mr. Bartosz Przywara (European Union Delegation to India), Subrahmanyam Pulipaka (CEO NSEFI), Dr. Priyantha Wijayatunga (Senior Director, ADB), Dr. Ming-Tsun Kuo (Deputy Division Director, Industrial Technology Research Institute), Mr. Sujoy Ghosh (Country Director, First Solar), Ms. Vasanthi Sreeram (Chief Technical Advisor, Websol Energy), Mr. Sukumar Madugula (General Manager, RCT Solutions), Mr. Eric Quiring, Director (Global Public Affairs, SMA), Mr. Mate Heisz (Global Affairs Director, SolarPower Europe) and Mr Alexander Hogeveen Rutter (ISA Secretariat).
Additionally, the conference was attended by the Ministerial delegations of the ISA Member Countries, policymakers, experts, and industry leaders.
Background of the study:
Over the last decade, the global solar PV manufacturing capacity has gradually moved from Europe, Japan and USA to China and have been concentrated in one country. Today, with the growing solar energy demand the solar PV manufacturing is getting highly monopolized and there is a need for a resilient supply chain as with concentration of PV supply chain is bringing vulnerabilities, delays in imports, pricing and ultimately posing potential challenges for the energy transition.
Hence, to meet international energy and climate goals the global deployment of solar PV is and will grow on an unprecedented scale. Therefore, there is demand for a major additional expansion in manufacturing capacity, and the concentration of PV manufacturing is raising concerns about the world’s ability to rapidly develop resilient supply chains. Today, the world almost completely relies on China for the supply of solar panels and this level of concentration in any global supply chain would represent a considerable vulnerability where solar PV is no exception.
Additionally, in the pathway of net zero emissions Solar PV’s demand for critical minerals will play a dominating role in solar PV manufacturing and its resilient supply chain. Hence, today it is the need of the hour to cooperate and collaborate for critical minerals and solar PV manufacturing.
Session Objectives:
The session highlighted and gave insight into the pathway for measures that can be taken for resilient supply chain along with how the international solar community and states can collaborate for solar PV manufacturing.
Solar PV Resilient Supply Chains at Sixth Session of ISA
