Overcoming legal, technical, economic and social challenges to growing solar energy

The results of Work Package 1 in one comprehensive report

The current international political and economic turmoil raises many challenges for the solar industry and the deployment of solar technology.

Challenges for the 2Seas countries

Brexit; COVID019 and economic policy changes around imports of PV cells and panels from China, the leading producer; smart metering; and other European, national and local measures are all putting solar energy deployment to the test in the 2Seas countries involved in the SOLARISE project (Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the UK).

Stepping up

Even with these hurdles on the horizon, however, solar energy harvesting is making good progress – even if the 2Seas areas could do more to up their game by studying best practices and integrating lessons learned.

What is a best practice?

Best practices are crucial to identifying models for successful solar energy projects, and to develop feasibility studies and pilots. Establishing a comprehensive and simple definition of what constitutes best practice for solar energy application is not easy.

But further nuances also have to be taken into account. To take an example, a “good” PV installation that has already run for 5 to 10 years has a far poorer performance than a newer, cheaper installation of the same size – due to less efficient PV panels, for instance.

Read the Work Package 1 report