This was stated by the CEO of the Gransolar group at the 7th Energy Forum of El Economista. The main players in the energy sector in Spain met in Madrid in September to discuss the keys to the sector’s recovery, under the slogan “RePower EU: The road to energy independence”.
Iván Higueras contributed to this forum with Gransolar’s experience as a business group of international reference in the promotion, construction and development of photovoltaic plants. Thus, he highlighted Spain’s desire to promote the energy industry, with the purpose of “not allowing this to happen to us as it did with other technologies”. He also wanted to point out that promoting an industry is not only about developing methods that facilitate financing. “It is not enough to promote investment in projects. It is also necessary to preserve and promote the national industrial fabric in renewables, if we want to achieve the European objectives in a sustainable way”.
Asian dependency
Energy sector leaders took advantage of the “RePower EU: The Road to Energy Independence” forum to put on the table the dependence that the energy industry in Europe currently has on Asian countries. This conditioning is hindering the production of renewable energies, such as solar photovoltaics, since the manufacture of certain key components is focused solely on the Asian giant, which determines the supply chains.
Gransolar’s CEO described the conditions that should help the sector in Spain, and was optimistic about the energy outlook. In his expert opinion, the Spanish business fabric is strong, although it is necessary to exploit “our leading companies in investments, trackers and transformers that have the capacity to promote the industry and the employment in the sector”.
Within its diversified structure, Gransolar group is opening new manufacturing windows aiming at 10 GW manufactured, increasing manufacturing in Valencia and boosting its presence in international markets such as South Africa, the United States and Australia, where it will soon exceed 1.2 GW in projects built. However, Higueras confirmed during the debate that currently “at international level we have to compete at a disadvantage”, and reinforced the need to encourage the creation of a more local industry at national level.
