Turkey’s operational solar PV module manufacturing capacity exceeds that of EU member states, says Sinovoltaics
EU cell and wafer capacity stands at only 1.2 GW and 0.2 GW, respectively, excluding Turkey
Europe has a large planned capacity across the PV supply chain, but cell and wafer production would need to expand much faster to support module growth
Turkey has emerged as Europe’s largest solar module manufacturing base, with 13.2 GW of operational capacity, according to Sinovoltaics. The European Union (EU), by comparison, has 9.7 GW, leaving the bloc well short of the manufacturing scale needed to meet its 2030 ambitions.
“The finding runs counter to the EU's own story about a "Made in Europe" solar comeback,” says Sinovoltaics in its new Europe Solar Supply Chain Map Edition 1-2026.
The map tracks 178 production sites and projects across about 25 countries. It puts Europe’s current module capacity at 24.2 GW, while Turkey alone accounts for 13.2 GW – higher than the combined capacity of Italy, Germany, Spain, France, and the Netherlands. Sinovoltaics says EU member states have 9.7 GW of current module capacity.
Turkey’s module capacity is expected to reach 23.2 GW by 2027/30, including projects such as Astronergy’s planned facility in Balıkesir, according to Sinovoltaics. A planned 5 GW cell plant by JTPV/Schmid-Pekintaş in Düzce is also included in the pipeline (see Drinda Announces 5 GW Solar Cell Factory In Turkey).
Europe’s current solar cell production capacity stands at 5.3 GW along with 1.2 GW of ingot and wafer capacity, and 27.6 GW of polysilicon produced almost entirely by Wacker Chemie in Germany. The other entries in the map produce lower-grade metallurgical silicon rather than solar-grade material.
“Europe has spent years discussing the reshoring of solar manufacturing, yet the data shows that module assembly capacity is concentrating in Turkey rather than the EU,” said Dricus De Rooij, CEO of Sinovoltaics. He added that cell, wafer, and polysilicon production remained limited at scale.
Excluding Turkey, the EU has 1.2 GW of cell capacity, 0.2 GW of ingot and wafer capacity, and 9.7 GW of module production capacity. These figures are far below the roughly 76 GW per segment that the Clean Energy Technology Observatory says would be needed to meet the EU’s Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) goal of sourcing 40% of annual solar deployment from domestic manufacturing by 2030 (see EU Solar PV Manufacturing Still Far From Global Competitiveness).
“Much of what Europe counts as regional module capacity sits in a country outside that target's domestic-content rules,” observes Sinovoltaics.
The supply chain could expand substantially by 2027/30 if projects in the pipeline are completed, since this capacity is ‘real but far from confirmed’. Sinovoltaics’ map lists 88.2 GW of planned module capacity, 65.2 GW of cell capacity, 46.7 GW of ingot and wafer capacity, and 68.4 GW of polysilicon capacity, of planned projects.
Moreover, Europe’s solar cell production capacity would also need to grow roughly 12-fold and wafer capacity nearly 40-fold to catch up with a 3.6× expansion in modules, according to Sinovoltaics.
However, much of the pipeline remains uncertain. About 61% of planned module capacity is still at the ‘announced’ stage, and roughly one in seven tracker entries (28 of 183) is canceled or suspended, including Meyer Burger’s cell project and Solarwatt’s closure (see Meyer Burger Files Insolvency For 2 German Subsidiaries and Another German Solar PV Module Production Fab Closing Down).
