Solar quest

9 May 2022 By Lisa Jucca Follow @LJucca

The bloc is ramping up investment in renewable sources to help kick its addiction to Russian oil and gas. Yet China currently controls at least 75% of the solar panel supply chain. To gain its energy freedom, Europe will also need to invest in manufacturing at home.

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The European Commission in March suggested accelerating the deployment of solar and wind power in the 27-nation European Union to reduce the bloc’s dependency on Russian gas.

The EU’s “Fit for 55” plan that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% foresees trebling the bloc’s solar and wind capacity by 2030 to replace 170 billion cubic metres of gas consumption.

China controls 77% of the upstream production of polysilicon used for solar panels, manufactures 98% of solar panel wafers, 83% of solar panel cells and controls 75% of the manufacturing process to assemble cells, according to data from BloombergNEF.

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