Bilbao, Spain – September 22, 2025 – The 42nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC) opened today, gathering 10,000+ scientists, engineers, and policymakers to advance solar’s scientific frontier. Running until September 26 at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre, the event, coordinated by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, focuses on translating lab innovations into industrial reality .
Plenary sessions featured groundbreaking research, including a Dutch team’s presentation on tandem perovskite-silicon cells reaching 34.5% efficiency—edging closer to commercialization. Workshops highlighted the EU’s new solar standards, set to be implemented by May 2026 under the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, aiming to harmonize quality across member states .
The exhibition hall showcased pilot projects, such as Spain’s Basque Country deploying 50MW of "grid-serving PV"—systems that dynamically adjust output to stabilize grids. Attendees also explored PVGIS, a web-based tool calculating solar potential, and toured virtual demos of the European Solar Test Installation (ESTI) facility, which validates new technologies .
With global renewable investments projected at $3.3 trillion in 2025, EU PVSEC underscored Europe’s role in driving R&D. "We’re moving from gigawatts to terawatts," said JRC’s energy director. "Here, science meets scale."
