German energy industry proposes “resilience bonus” for European-produced solar PV arrays

A planned proposal by Germany’s energy industry lobby group BDEW that rewards solar PV plant operators using a minimum share of components manufactured in Europe aims to strengthen the region’s ailing solar power industry, business daily Handelsblatt reports. The industry group is currently working on a concept that includes such a “resilience bonus” for products made in Europe, which would be paid out through higher guaranteed remuneration. Moreover, BDEW said policymakers should also reward investments in new production capacities in the region, a draft seen by Handelsblatt has shown. “Building up production capacities for renewable power installations in Germany and Europe is strategically important to reduce dependencies in energy transition technologies,” BDEW head Kerstin Andreae told the newspaper. With its proposal, the industry group aims to influence the debate around the government’s forthcoming “solar power package,” which the coalition plans to adopt in February as a set of measures that should speed up solar power expansion in the country. The proposal’s draft said “all relevant steps in value creation” for solar PV installations should be made available in Europe “at sufficient scale,” which would drastically reduce Europe’s reliance on China as the most important supplier of solar PV arrays.

BDEW based its proposal on the ongoing negotiations around the EU’s Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), which is supposed to develop criteria for renewable power auctions that go beyond merely comparing price levels. This is meant to strengthen the position of European manufacturers, who on average struggle to compete with Asian producers in terms of production costs but often offer other advantages, such as more sustainable production procedures.