European Commission announces Co-programmed partnership for Solar PV

27 March 2024

The European Commission has published its ‘Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025-2027,’ where it decided to form an official Co-Programmed European Partnership for solar photovoltaics with the European Technology and Innovation Platform (ETIP PV). The Commission and the solar sector are going to negotiate on the best possible format for the partnership, which will enter into force from early 2025.

The strategic plan will guide research and innovation (R&I) funding for the 2025-2027 period. European Partnerships bring the European Commission together with private and/or public partners to tackle some of Europe’s most pressing challenges through joint research and innovation initiatives.

Rutger Schlatmann, Chair of ETIP PV, and Head of the division Solar Energy at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin fuer Materialien und Energie (HZB) (he/him) starts by welcoming the addition of a Co-Programmed Partnership to the Horizon Europe 2025-2027 Strategic Plan, on behalf of ETIP PV.

“For Europe to maintain a leadership on PV research and innovation, it is essential to directly involve the industry in R&I programmes, and ensure funding is directed to the right priorities.

Publishing a continuous series of Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda documents, ETIP PV has long worked with partners to guide European research programmes to the topics that shape the evolution of the PV sector.

We welcome this next step in the cooperation between our community and the Horizon Programme and look forward to taking an active role in this process!"

Thomas Garabetian, coordinator of the ETIP PV Secretariat, and R&I Manager at SolarPower Europe (he/him) continues: “The inclusion of a co-programmed partnership for solar under the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Strategic Plan is a significant step for the industry, which will improve the coordination of R&I efforts along the rapidly evolving solar value chain.

This partnership will be a crucial pillar to develop a resilient European solar supply chain, by helping European companies and research institutes to reduce their turnaround time between the laboratory and production phases, with better targeted R&I programmes that will help deliver innovation at scale. It will also be important for advancing new applications for solar such as building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) and floating solar and developing solutions to prioritise circularity within the solar industry.

As ETIP PV Secretariat, we look forward to playing our part in transforming the European solar R&I framework. Very concretely, the coming months are going to be focused on supporting the ETIP PV experts in updating the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda that defines R&I priorities for solar photovoltaics, which will help to structure the Co-Programmed partnership activities in the coming years.”