PARALLEL EVENTS PROGRAMME

In 2017 the European Commission launched a preparatory study to analyse the feasibility of implementing policy tools like Ecodesign and Energy Label, which have brought economical and environmental benefit to the EU when applied to other products, to photovoltaic (PV) products.* The conclusions of the study, led by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, are reflected in the final draft of the proposed measures on Ecodesign and Energy Label.

*More information about these two studies can be found in their corresponding website: [1] [2]

Perovskite solar cells have shown remarkable progress in a very short time with rapid increases in efficiency, from reports of first single-junction devices of about 3% in 2009 to perovskite-based tandems of 33.9% today.
VIPERLAB is an EU-funded H2020 project that brings together a network of research infrastructures for Europe-based scientists and research organizations engaged in the study and development of perovskite PV to make technology evaluation cycles faster and more reliable, thus enabling a rapid market entry of perovskite-based photovoltaic products and a more widespread use of renewable energy conversion technology.

The VIPERLAB Final Public Event is organized for a diverse range of stakeholders from the solar and/or renewable energy industry, academic and research organizations, and policy makers, with these two aims in mind:

1. Disseminate the project final results by presenting best practices and user testimonials.
2. Engage the wider perovskite PV research community through a panel discussion about future perovskite PV technology development in Europe.

In 2024, the European Union adopted a rooftop mandate to deploy PV on as many of Europe’s buildings as possible. This represents an amazing opportunity for the PV sector with a tremendous deployment potential. PV integration is an answer to this technical, cultural and social challenge. Through innovation, integration of PV in buildings and infrastructures accompanies the evolution of the building as an active terminal in the energy system, while providing an excellent prism to understand the social changes that the building sector is undergoing. This session, organized by the Increase project, a Horizon Europe funded project that looks to solve market uptake challenges to PV integrated in buildings and infrastructure via technical and social innovation, will explore the priorities for efforts in the coming years to allow integrated PV solutions to break through to the mainstream of the building sector.

The side event will open with two presentations on the ETIP PV SRIA Challenge 3 on “New Applications through Integration of Photovoltaics” and on the technical outcomes of the Increase project after one year of operation. The second part of the event will feature a high-level panel discussion beyond technical topics, with a focus on the role of technical and social innovation in unleashing the potential of Integrated PV, examining diverse project perspectives (Seamless-PV, MC2.0, Increase) and the interplay between standardization and co-creation for innovation. The discussions will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Within the International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme

(IEA-PVPS), the Agrivoltaics Action Group has been established (lead by ENEA & NREL) to create and coordinate the knowledge necessary to leverage the potential of combined land use of agriculture and PV towards 1) improved land use efficiency, 2) increased resilience of the agriculture sector against climate change, and 3 greater social acceptance of solar energy.

Agrivoltaics is a complex topic – implementation of this integrated, cross-sector technology requires the involvement of many different stakeholders who represent diverse values and perspectives. While technical aspects are increasingly recognized by scientists and policy makers, the significance of people’s perspectives and the implications on implementation is underexplored. This event will present the social aspects of agrivoltaics from different perspectives and disciplinary fields (The landscape of agrivoltaics) with the aim of elevating diverse topics relevant to social perspectives and acceptance of new technologies, such as energy justice, economics, policy, and landscape design. Building on the value of people’s perspectives, this event will feature interaction and co-generation of knowledge – event attendees will be engaged in facilitated discussion intended to identify key topics for future interdisciplinary social science research on agrivoltaics.

Consistent high irradiation levels throughout the year and successful tenders for providing solar electricity underscore the competitiveness of photovoltaic (PV) plants in (semi)arid or desert areas, with the most cost-effective bids seen in arid regions like MENA (Middle East and North Africa), Chile, India or New Mexico (USA). However, the harsh weather and environmental conditions inherent to these regions, such as elevated aerosol concentrations, high temperatures, UV exposure, dust, and occasionally humidity, pose significant challenges for the long-term reliability of PV modules and components, as well as for operations and maintenance (O&M), energy production and its integration with the grid. This parallel session aims at supporting industry and policy makers to address and overcome challenges and issues related to the PV development in desert environments by discussing two main areas: a) LCOE reductions strategies in arid environments, and b) Improvement of reliability and long-term performance in arid environments including new standards and policies, reliability, specific degradation modes, and impact on grid integration. The main topics to be discussed include (but not limited):

• Forecasting the Energy yield of PV modules in desert environments.
• Monitoring, forecasting and mitigation of soiling.
• PV productivity: best practices and models to estimate, assess and optimize PV energy generation in arid climates.
• Operation and Maintenance (O&M) challenges and cost reduction in desert climates: predictive maintenance, robotic cleaning and abrasion monitoring, autonomous PV plant survey, early failure detection, and related approaches and solutions.
• PV module and component's reliability, performance, and temperature mitigation strategies.
• Standardization and policies.

The objective is to provide insights and solutions that will contribute to the effective management of PV projects in desert regions, ensuring sustained reliability, operational efficiency, and enhanced integration with the grid.

In this parallel event three European Innovation projects (IBC4EU, PILATUS, and PEPPERONI; all funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme), will present their approach to advance future photovoltaic (PV) technology manufacturing in the EU.

Short presentations from all three projects will be followed by panel discussion on the opportunities and challenges of bringing back the PV manufacturing industry to Europe.

The event will highlight how the future of PV technology manufacturing in the EU is being prepared for growth and innovation, driven by technological advancements, supportive policies, and increasing market demand. Attendees will gain valuable insights from expert presentations and engage in a dynamic panel discussion featuring industry leaders, PV market experts and regulatory representatives. The discussion will address current hurdles of the European PV sector, including competitiveness on the global stage, supply chain dependencies, and regulatory complexities and explore collaborative strategies necessary to establish a robust and innovative PV manufacturing foundation in Europe.

The aim of this parallel event is to present the results that have been developed in the frame of SERENDI-PV project. Project has 2 pillars:

1. Developing innovations to improve lifetime, reliability, performance and profitability of PV generation, focusing on new PV technologies (Bifacial, Floating, BIPV) and on special loss mechanisms (soiling, snow and long-term degradation).
2. Developing innovations to improve the high-penetration of the PV generation in the grids with improved stability.

To accelerate the progress of R&I for PV, the European Commission introduced a Co- Programmed Partnership for Photovoltaics which will overhaul the process for directing R&I support to the PV sector at the European level for the 2026-2032 period, in order to achieve the objectives of rapid deployment of PV and resilience of the European PV value chain. This co-programmed partnership is a key tool to improve the “lab-to-fab” framework and support the R&I side of the PV industrial ecosystem in Europe and secure the sustained competitiveness of the European PV industry.

This session, organized by the ETIP PV in partnership with the European Commission R&I Directorate will present the missions, structure and objectives of the partnership, defining how PV stakeholders can engage with this new pillar of the PV R&I environment. The event will also be the opportunity to present the updated Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for PV which will serve as the basis for the work of the partnership in defining priority topics for R&I support.

Emerging photovoltaic (PV) technologies such as perovskite‑based or organic PV devices have demonstrated significant growth in efficiencies recently, while they have also re‑invigorated applications such as flexible, semi-transparent or indoor PV. Nevertheless, a major barrier towards commercialisation and market growth for such new PV technologies is the lack of appropriate testing standards. Perovskite-based PV devices and some similar emerging PV technologies possess the characteristic feature of metastability – depending on illumination, bias conditions and bias history, their generated photocurrent can take a significant amount of time to stabilise. Metastable PV devices are slow to respond to voltage bias settings, making current – voltage (I-V) measurements and power rating challenging. These aspects had in the past led to the publication of the technical report IEC TR 63228:2019, which summarised general perspectives and considerations for I-V testing of metastable PV devices. Recent international intercomparison activities have demonstrated notable differences in measurement results between test labs, raising the questions of whether specific harmonised measurement protocols are needed. Moreover, tandem perovskite PV device add further complications to the above considerations.

In this parallel event, with the help of a panel of metrology experts and industry stakeholders, along with audience participation we will discuss:

• What are the various methods that different test laboratories are using for metastable PV device testing?
• What are the specific challenges and difficulties when measuring metastable PV devices?
• Is there a route and potential consensus towards specific I-V and power rating methods?

This parallel session ostensibly will focus on the limitations/advantages of lab-based certification testing versus climate-specific field studies for improving PV reliability. But our overall objectives are more profound: we intend to foster audience engagement on the important—but poorly addressed—topic of photovoltaic reliability in a multi-terawatt world. Specifically, we are interested in fostering a conversation around how to establish a forum for “real world” information-sharing, including best practices and lab- and field-identified failures.

Our session is intended to be provocative: we want to engage the audience in discussion and hear different perspectives related to the topic of “collective reliability” and how we might coordinate our efforts to ensure the buildout of the world’s newest critical infrastructure, in the manner, say, of the nuclear industry.

The informal network of current Horizon Europe perovskite projects brings you a round table with open discussion and dialogue with the public to describe and debate about current and ongoing experiences testing and characterizing perovskite-based cells and mini modules.  We propose to bring the scientific community working on different perovskite technologies together for a more informal discussion where methodologies and techniques can be compared, in an approach that aims to complement the more in-depth technology specific presentations in the main conference sessions.

With the goal of ensuring EUPVSEC maintains its position as the premier scientific learning and exchange conference on new PV technologies including perovskites, this event is also proposed in parallel to the VIPERLAB Final Public Event: Unveiling the Future of Solar Energy with Perovskite PV and as such will have many common participants; should both parallel events be accepted, it is important that they not overlap.

The informal EU Horizon Perovskite network is composed of the following projects: TESTARE, PEARL, DIAMOND, VALHALLA, PEPPERONI, SUPERTANDEM, NEXUS, TRIUMPH, VIPERLAB, PERSEUS (project yet to be started), LUMINOSITY (project yet to be started), LAPERITIVO (project yet to be started). The network aims to bring together the wider perovskite PV research community, including their EU-funded projects, to further collaboration and knowledge exchange through active participation in conferences, workshops and discussions.