SolarNL 2024 report online!
Amsterdam, Netherlands, December 17, 2024 – Our status report on the SolarNL program is online. In this report we present the progress of our solar energy partners in the last year and discuss the market and policy trends that shape the future of the Dutch solar manufacturing sector.
Get the report here:
SolarNL status rapport (Dutch, .pdf, 9MB)
Some highlights from this report are:
- The solar energy market keeps growing, globally and in The Netherlands,
- The EU initiated several critical pieces of legislation (NZIA, CBAM, Forced Labour Agreement) that will influence the sector on important non-price criteria that favor local producers that have already incorporated these criteria in their processes,
- We focus on two markets that are critical for the European industry:
- High-end, high-efficiency silicon products, that are a valorization opportunity for excellent European R&D and critical for the continent’s energy security,
- Special applications, that open new markets for integrated and next-generation products that are lightweight, flexible, with a low carbon footprint and circularly designed. These products can be integrated into buildings and vehicles and allow for broader application of energy-producing solar products.
The overlap of a growing market, upcoming legislations and unique product-market combinations present a strong case for a Dutch and European solar manufacturing industry. The Netherlands has a number of companies that are well positioned in this landscape.
We are excited to be working alongside our partners and the ecosystem in the upcoming year!
The SolarNL program receives funding from the National Growth Fund.
National Growth Fund Program SolarNL
Si HJT cell factory
Flexible solar foils
Lightweight/integrated PV
National Economic Growth Fund (Nationaal Groeifonds) subsidy awarded
SolarNL Press release (in Dutch), June 30, 2023
SolarNL Press release (in English), June 30, 2023
Dutch Government Press release (in English), July 2023
Groeifonds application – Press release (in Dutch), March 7, 2023
Urgency
Our energy supply is changing dramatically and quickly, and in this transition, ecological necessity meets economic opportunity. The transition to renewable energy sources is necessary to evolve into sustainable economies and mitigate climate change. It also requires and creates vast opportunities for technological innovation and business creation – which this National Growth Fund proposal intends to grasp. Electricity from sunlight (photovoltaics, PV) will play a major role in the energy transition and is poised to grow worldwide to the ‘terawatt’ scale. In the Netherlands, the installed capacity is set to grow from 18 GWp today to 100-250 GWp in 2050. Hence, PV is a crucial ‘industry of the future’.
This Growth Fund proposal aims to create the necessary innovative PV technologies and industrial basis in the Netherlands to capture economic value of billions of euros for decades to come. In addition, this ‘local manufacturing’, using short lines from supply to markets, will generate multiple environmental benefits and reinforce strategic autonomy in our energy supply. On all these points, the proposal is fully aligned with the currently accelerating momentum towards new industrial public policies on EU level.