Episode Details

Europe has some of the world’s best solar researchers and strongest local markets. So why is so much of the PV manufacturing happening somewhere else?

Recorded at the recent EU PVSEC scientific conference and exhibition in Rotterdam, host Jonathan Gifford explores this question with Gaëtan Masson, CEO of the Becquerel Institute and co-chair of the European Solar Manufacturing Council. They examine Europe’s increasingly unusual position within the energy transition: a major solar market with very little manufacturing of its own. Meanwhile, India, the U.S. and China are building enormous production capacity – often drawing on European research outcomes.

So, can Europe leverage its solar knowhow to rebuild its industry? Masson argues that European-level industrial policy is required – particularly if manufacturers are going to attract the investment needed to scale.

Jonathan also speaks with 2026 Becquerel Prize winner Delfina Muñoz, Research Director of the Solar Energy Department at CEA at INES. Much of Muñoz’s research has focused on the interfaces between the different layers of a solar cell – because even well-designed solar products can generate weak results if the layers within the PV cell don’t function efficiently together. It’s an idea that is becoming even more important with technologies such as perovskite-silicon tandems, where efficiency, degradation, and stability factors can all hinge on what happens at those interfaces.

As a board member of the European Solar Manufacturing Council, Muñoz is also working at another kind of interface: between academia, industry, and policymakers. Closing the gaps between these groups could assist Europe in contributing to the development of the next generation of PV technology – and manufacturing it.

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