At the launch of the paper ‘Inverters 2.0: Strengthening Europe’s inverter industry’, representatives from the inverter industry presented the IPCEI concept to Kerstin Jorna, the European Commission's Director-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.
European inverters have a critical opportunity to further tap into the technological advancements needed for the electrification and digitalisation of the energy system. The IPCEI aims to ensure that the EU inverter ecosystem maintains an innovation edge, globally.
Also see: Inverters as interface of the energy transition
European inverter manufacturers are facing pressure and growing competition. A quickly implemented IPCEI will stimulate an innovative and sustainable investment leap forward, empowering Europe to keep pace with the rest of the world.
Dries Acke, Deputy CEO and Policy Director at SolarPower Europe said, “We need to build on the success story of European inverters. The electrification wave is a critical opportunity for Europe’s inverters to seize the innovation edge and establish a competitive global market share. An IPCEI is the foundation for Europe to entrench its world-leading spot in inverters that go the extra mile – supporting the grid, securing cyber-preparedness, and strengthening digital interoperability.”
Key opportunities and objectives of the IPCEI
The key opportunities and objectives of the IPCEI would target improvements in:
- The technical capacity of power electronics.
- Access to critical components of inverters, and a decrease in material requirements.
- Grid forming abilities, to support greater, smoother, solar integration into the grid.
- Enhanced cybersecurity capacity and strengthened digitalisation, which would include a roadmap for cyber-preparedness in solar inverters and ensuring interoperability between European inverters and the energy system
Three key projects under the IPCEI would focus respectively on; better hardware, smarter software, and a ‘disruptive’ technological breakthrough. With Germany, Austria, Spain, and Italy currently hosting the most inverter manufacturing capacity, the proposal identifies the countries as the potential Member State leaders of the project.
The next meetings of the Joint European Forum for IPCEI (JEF-IPCEI) will take place in Q4 2024. Chaired by Ms Jorna, and Olivier Guersent, Director General for Competition in the European Commission, these meetings evaluate candidate technologies, and decide on which are suitable for the IPCEI procedure.
Inverter market key facts
Inverters Explained 2.0 also includes up to date market data. Some highlights below:
- In 2023, there was equivalent of 82.1 GW of solar inverter manufacturing capacity in the EU (compared to around 60 GW of solar installed in the same period).
- While some EU inverter companies keep growing and announcing reinvestment plans, their relative market share in Europe is shrinking.
- As of 2023, around 35,000 jobs were employed in the EU by the inverter industry.There are at least 14 inverter companies operating in the EU.
- The top countries for inverter production are Spain and Germany, with Spain providing almost half the total EU manufacturing capacity from 4 companies, while Germany hosts almost a third of EU manufacturing capacity, from at least 8 inverter producers
Inverters 2.0 was launched in Munich, at Intersolar Europe, and a recorded version of the conversation will be made available in coming weeks. (hcn)
