Growing community opposition to solar developments and the high cost of capital will be pressing challenges for the European solar industry in the next year.
Despite some ups and downs, the industry worldwide made steady headway in 2024, surpassing the 2TW capacity mark towards the end of the year, only two years after reaching 1TW.
Finance and development experts taking part in a webinar organised this week by Solar Power Portal publisher Solar Media were asked to give their views on the biggest challenges and opportunities for the industry this year.
Chairing the discussion, Global Solar Council CEO Sonia Dunlop highlighted the industry’s progress in 2024, which, in addition to reaching the 2TW milestone, attracted investment of some half a trillion dollars.
But the industry experts on the webinar—developer Lightsource bp, investor Infrared Capital Partners, bank Santander and asset manager NTR—highlighted a number of challenges that look set to persist into 2025.
Alex DeSouza, general counsel for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Lightsource bp, highlighted the knock-on impacts of local opposition to projects on development costs and timelines.
“What I’m seeing with my legal hat on is some of the challenges right at the start of the development process and… the effects of not having proper community engagement,” DeSouza said.
“Community opposition to projects, which they don’t think have been appropriately developed… has an immediate impact on all of us because of timelines,” added DeSouza. “Community engagement costs money and this is obviously putting up the cost of development, which is increasing costs across the board.”
The webinar is available to watch now.
All of the panellists will be present at Solar Media’s annual Solar Finance & Investment Europe event in London on 4-5 February 2025. For more details, visit the website.
A more in-depth look at the webinar discussion was published first on our sister site, PV Tech.
