Ireland’s Solar Value Chain Opportunity

This report was prepared by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) with input and analysis from Ricardo Energy & Environment. 

The report examines in detail the global solar photovoltaic (PV) value chain, Ireland’s strengths within it and opportunities for Irish research and industry to capture value and new business from a growing international solar PV market out to 2030.

The study highlights the scope for Ireland to become more than just a ‘technology-taker’ in the solar PV sector and identifies several priorities to help maximise the role Irish research and industry can play.

A Growing Global Market for Solar PV

Solar PV is positioned to become one of the most important energy technologies in meeting global sustainable energy and climate commitments. In the period since 2010 solar PV has been the fastest growing power generation technology worldwide in terms of new capacity additions per year, and projections by the International Energy Agency (IEA) foresee this trend continuing.

Ireland has a small but growing solar PV deployment industry with just over 6MWp (Megawatt Peak) installed to date, almost entirely on rooftops. Ireland’s Energy White Paper recognises an increasing role for solar power in the future Irish energy mix and its contribution will grow, especially as system costs continue to decline. Given the projected scale of the future solar market in Europe and worldwide4 there is also growing interest from Irish research and industry in the opportunities to capture some of the value of this global market.