Labour shortage hampers European PV installations
Labour shortage hampers European PV installations
Thousands of photovoltaic panels are sitting idle in warehouses across Europe as the continent grapples with an unprecedented energy crisis. After the Russian-Ukrainian war, electricity prices soared, making the case for an accelerated transition to renewable energy. Demand for solar power in homes and businesses is soaring; so is the supply of panels to meet that demand. But a key problem is still missing: Not enough engineers are installing the roof modules fast enough to keep up with the order.
Jenny Chase, the chief PV analyst at Bloomberg, said: “PV is infrastructure, and you can't build infrastructure with your fingers. PV companies are starting to realize that, in fact, they are not installing as fast as their customers are buying . ."
The reporter was informed that in the export data of the world's largest solar panel manufacturer, there was also a backlog of undelivered orders. From January to July, China's sales to Europe totaled $14.2 billion, or about 54 billion watts, according to BloombergNEF. That's enough to power more than 16 million German households and beat BNEF's forecast of 41 gigawatts of installed capacity in Europe for the whole of this year.
Dries Acke, policy director of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, said that in 2022 Europe will still have record PV installations, but if solar panels are available to all who seek to install them, the number will be even higher.
"Installers in many countries are fully booked for the next few weeks or even months," Acke said. "In Belgium or Germany, solar panels ordered now may not be installed until March."
The problem is, installing solar panels on a roof is a labor-intensive project. Daniel Tipping, an analyst at consulting firm Wood Mackenzie Ltd., noted that disruptions due to insufficient installers are more common in the industry than when utilities build large-scale power plants.
Holaluz-Clidom SA, one of Spain's largest roofing companies, has opened an academy to train workers to tackle the labor shortage. The company's chief executive, Carlota Pi Amoros, said that a year ago, it took around 180 days to install a roof system , but now it takes at most 45 days.
"The demand for solar energy in Spain is very strong," Pi Amoros said in an interview. "We're already in the fall and we're assuring our customers that they'll get their solar panels before winter. That's a very strong selling point."
In addition, while labor shortages are currently the main bottleneck for the European PV industry, the accumulation of panels in Rotterdam, the continent's largest port, is also related to logistics, with reports of long delays at customs; meanwhile, global computer A shortage of chips means that some panels are missing inverters that handle power.
Martin Schachinger, managing director of German solar trading platform pvXchange Trading GmbH, said: "If this shortage slows the growth of the industry, we have no chance of meeting our climate goals in the coming years."
Sales in the European market more than doubled in the first half of the year. However, demand in some European countries is expected to slow in the second half of the year due to issues affecting the logistics chain.
来源：智通财经
