The world’s biggest scientific conference for photovoltaics (PV) opened its doors in Marseille

• PV technology will play a key role in transforming our energy systems –Florence Lambert, Conference Director • Connect with the global PV community at EU PVSEC to gain knowledge, explore trends and discuss what is needed to maintain the new solar momentum in Europe – Robert Kenny, Technical Programme Chair

Marseille, 10 September 2019 - The European PV Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC), opened yesterday in sunny Marseille, France, and is chaired by Florence Lambert, Director of CEA Liten, France. The programme covers fields of interest to all stakeholders, ranging from concepts, materials and cells, to applications, systems, policies and markets and provides an excellent overview of the current status of our ever more important renewable energy source.


Following the Scientific Opening, the prestigious Becquerel Prize has been awarded to Pierre Verlinden, Visiting Professor at SunYat-sen University, China, who highlighted: "The World has just one generation to accomplish a complete transformation of the Energy Economy to zero CO2 emissions. As members of the PV Industry and the PV research community, our work is critical and faces many challenges, not so much technical rather political and educational".

Opening Addresses have been held by Florence Lambert, EU PVSEC Conference General Chair, Laurent Michel, Director General of Energy and Climate, Ministry for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, France as well as by Piotr Szymanski, European Commission, Director of the JRC Directorate C for Energy, Transport and Climate and Walburga Hemetsberger, Chief Executive Officer of SolarPower Europe.

Florence Lambert stated about PV and the event: "As a major contributor to a cleaner and safer future for the planet, PV technologies will play a key role in transforming our energy systems while enabling a massive shift to carbon-free energy. To reach the targets set in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, there is still much progress to be made to get renewables into the energy mix at an even faster pace".


Piotr Szymanski summarised his presentation with the statement: "The European Commission's strategic long-term vision ‘A clean planet for all' calls for a climate neutral EU by 2050. It is concluded that PV is one of the key enablers in this clean energy transition which will pave the way for the modernisation of the economy and improving the quality of life of all Europeans".

Walburga Hemetsberger announced: "Solar has entered a new era of growth in Europe. With strong market prospects, now is the right moment to build on Europe's highly innovative and state of the art solar technologies, that will create thousands of clean energy jobs in Europe and accelerate the energy transition.

Robert Kenny, EU PVSEC Technical Programme Chair: "The EU PVSEC will showcase the most recent developments in concepts, materials and applications and offers a unique opportunity to meet and share ideas with the world's best experts in the field".

Background EU PVSEC

Since 1977, the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC) has combined a renowned international scientific Conference with a leading PV Industry Exhibition and trade fair. During five Conference and four Exhibition days, international products and technical innovations from all areas of photovoltaics are on show.

The EU PVSEC is supported by the European Commission.

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