l'Actualité du Solaire

In turn, the solar PV sector in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is calling for the ecological re-industrialisation of the region.

AuRA Digital Solaire wants to be integrated into this process.

in national and regional recovery plans and calls for an emergency diagnosis of the state of the regional digital photovoltaic solar energy sector to provide targeted assistance to businesses and save jobs.

This association indicates that its members are seeing an average drop in turnover of around 30% (Editor's note Over what period and in relation to what?), resulting in a hiring freeze, a lack of cash flow and widespread recourse to short-time working for part of the companies' teams. 3,000 jobs spread over 110 union members are now potentially threatened (NDLR over what total workforce)

This association is betting on the European Green Plan and believes with the Minister for Energy Transition that this plan will revive the European economy after the health crisis.

Tecsol of 19 April

NDLR Let's be concrete: how much does the photovoltaic sector weigh in terms of turnover and workforce? What does it represent in the French economy (GDP will reach €2,480 billion in 2019)?

Let's be realistic, let's say that solar professionals plead for their parish, why not, but not at any price or by making people believe anything. In what way is PV more important in the French economy than the Syndicat des Fleuristes? To believe that we are going to push photovoltaic when it weighs so little in the economy is to want to dream or to take readers or listeners for children. Politicians know how to measure the respective weight of the different interests and if they can have a certain inclination, realism (in principle) dominates.

The profession has to rely on itself. It must develop precise figures for its economic and social weight, and determine why the use of PV is economically indispensable (and not with incantations). In which industry, and even in which industrial sector, would it be interesting to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energies? To quantify the financial gain of the different alternatives and to draw attention to the gains if solar energy is used.

It is not with incantations, professions of faith, rumours such as saving the planet, dramatisations on global warming (which has occurred several times in the history of the universe), or the prethe opinions of this or that scientist who has already acquired an ecological background that will be convincing (it is so easy to bias the data or make mistakes in the figures to present a favourable result).

We need figures, incontrovertible data, elements to establish a balance of power that allows the PV to measure itself against such and such a profession, such and such an interest. Who can say what the profession's turnover will be in 2018 or 2019? What are its numbers? What has been its evolution over five years in France and around the world? Its profitability? What is its activity multiplier coefficient in related industrial sectors? Without answering some of these questions, the discourse can only be superficial and therefore inaudible.

When will we return to earth to present something more than just words and to prove that PV represents the future? Only then will the profession be credible. For the time being, it is not credible for lack of having built its economic, social and financial foundations. Its future will then be what we have seen so far, a rather confidential development reserved for specialists, to which the population does not adhere or rather to which it is indifferent. What a failure!

Let's get to work!