Solar Production Equipment In Focus For Solar Power Europe

By Prasanna Singh/ Updated On Fri, Mar 7th, 2025

Highlights :

Solar production equipment, where Indian firms have also faced some challenges in importing from China, is a critical area, yet European prices make it uncompetitive for most buyers.
It will take a clear technological edge for buyers in India especially to consider European suppliers, particularly beyond Module assembly.

Solar Production Equipment In Focus For Solar Power Europe

Report by Solar Power Europe

SolarPower Europe, the leading European solar body, has released a new report that calls upon Europe to seek deeper backward integration for solar manufacturing. The report highlights that at least 38 companies are active in Europe manufacturing the equipment and machinery that produces vital steps of the solar PV module supply chain, including cells, ingots, wafers, and polysilicon. The report comes even as we have seen a solar manufacturer Photowatt, shut down in France, while leading European inverter maker SMA Solar has slipped into losses as well.

Following on the launch of SolarPower Europe’s International Solar Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI), which aims to connect European solar manufacturers – including production equipment manufacturers – with global markets and related public financing, it lays down a primer for European solar manufacturing to regain the lost ground ceded to China in the past decade and more. ISMI was launched in Brussels in March 2025 in the presence of representatives from the European Commission and the European Investment Bank.

‘Solar Production Equipment – Key players in the EU’s industrial ecosystem for solar PV’ explores the European capacity to manufacture the equipment and machinery that produces at each stage of the solar module manufacturing process.

Michael Schmela, Director of Market Intelligence at SolarPower Europe, said: “Our first Solar Production Equipment report reveals the enduring role of Europe at a key juncture of the solar supply chain – creating the essential equipment that produces solar technology. Production equipment is a very important part of Europe’s reindustrialisation story, and the solar sector can tap into its clear potential through efforts like the International Solar Manufacturing Initiative.”
Solar Manufacturing In Europe 2025
Current solar PV module equipment producers are based across nine European countries (DE, FR, IT, NL, CH, ES, HU, FI, NO). The majority – 75% of European solar equipment manufacturers – are active in machinery for the cell and module segments.

In addition to mapping companies and manufacturing capacity, the report’s literature review identifies areas of European technological edge in the face of very strong competition from China. It claims that Europe is still a global leader for next generation perovskite and tandem solar cell technology, and Germany hosts the technology leaders in cell testing equipment.

In the solar sector, European companies originally played a key role in developing the production equipment needed for the mass production of solar wafers, cells, and modules. While the rise of China’s solar manufacturing sector initially provided a significant export market, a highly competitive local industry has since emerged. Additionally, today’s massive manufacturing overcapacity across the solar value chain in China has led to a shrinking global market for PV production equipment.

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Some European companies have exited the solar production equipment sector, while several have shifted focus to semiconductors and other industries. However, some – supported by Europe’s strong solar R&D sector – have continued to develop world-class solar production equipment for manufacturers. It is crucial for Europe to maintain its PV production equipment industry, which remains an essential pillar of the European solar industrial ecosystem and a key component of the EU’s solar industrial strategy. The recent surge in demand for local PV manufacturing in the US and particularly in India has opened new opportunities for European solar production equipment providers.

From Siemens reactors, ingot-pullers, passivation and diffusion furnaces, stringers, laminators, and more, the equipment and machinery required to produce solar panels, from polysilicon crystallisation to final module assembly, is extremely varied. Despite China’s dominance in solar manufacturing including solar equipment, hosting more than 90% global manufacturing capacity across most of the solar module value chain, at least 38 solar production equipment manufacturers are active in Europe, providing machines and processes for solar manufacturing across all production segments.

European solar equipment providers are most active in machinery for the cell and module segments, with 75% of companies producing either cell or module production equipment, or both. This reflects the current EU solar manufacturing landscape, where 12.6 GW of module and 2 GW of solar cell manufacturing capacity is operational today, compared to virtually no capacity in ingot/wafering. Among others, Europe is still a global leader for next generation perovskite solar cell manufacturing equipment, and German companies are technology leaders in cell testing equipment