Solar photovoltaic capacity has grown rapidly in the EU. From close to zero in 2008, solar now accounts for more than 10% of electricity generation. Solar installations began growing in 2010, notably in Germany, in response to government support schemes. In 2024, 57 GW of additional solar photovoltaic capacity was added in the EU, bringing total installed capacity to 304 GW and marking a 23% year-on-year growth rate.
We estimate that the EU has approximately 5 GW solar cell manufacturing capacity. The largest operational facility is Enel in Sicilia, whilst the future of the Meyer Burger plant in Thalheim, Germany is uncertain. Plans in France have been announced for substantial expansions including from Carbon and Holosolis.
The EU is a net importer of solar photovoltaic products. In 2024, imports were €11.3 billion and exports €1.9 billion, leaving a net import position of €9.4 billion. In 2010, solar imports reached a peak of just under €25 billion as government schemes supported solar deployment; these imports fell later in the 2010s as support was scaled back. In 2022 and 2023, imports spiked again as homeowners and companies rushed to install solar panels in response to high energy prices.
The solar sector accounts for one quarter of clean technology jobs (as defined in the Prognos dataset) in the EU. As of 2023, the sector was responsible for 227,000 jobs (including R&D, manufacturing, construction and operation). Spurred by government incentives, solar employment grew in the 2000s, reaching 100,000 employees by 2011. In 2012 (implemented by 2013) the EU imposed anti-dumping duties on the imports of Chinese solar panels. This led to a drop in European solar deployment and employment, which only recovered in 2019 after the duties were dropped. In 2023, more than four-fifths of jobs in the solar sector were for the construction and operation of solar panels and plants.
Solar patenting expanded very rapidly in the 2000s, but global patent families have fallen substantially since their peak around 2010. Europe and the United States were major centres of solar patenting during that earlier period, while China now records the largest number of patent families in the dataset. In 2024, China accounted for almost half of global solar patent families, compared with around 7% for Europe. Recent patenting is concentrated in organic and dye-sensitised solar technologies, followed by concentrators and power conversion, with much smaller volumes for thin-film and crystalline silicon technologies.
