Industry body The Global Solar Council (GSC) has announced the launch of its new brand and strategic vision, aimed at accelerating the deployment of solar power worldwide.
The organisation said its new brand embodies its core values of passion, community, and progress as a leader in the global energy transition.
GSC aims to build a fair and sustainable world with solar power at the heart of a new energy economy. To achieve this vision, the organisation is centring its strategy around three key pillars:
1 Policy and Advocacy: Supporting the industry to advocate for policies and regulations at global and national level to ensure the rapid and long-term growth of the solar PV industry.
2 Network Building and Knowledge: Bringing together policymakers, industry, international institutions, and investors to provide them with best practices and build capacity to open doors to new markets and business opportunities.
3 Standard Setting and Solutions: Leveraging its expertise to develop and promote global standards and solutions for solar PV to shape a competitive, high-quality, and sustainable industry.
“Solar is a booming industry,” said GSC chief executive Sonia Dunlop.
“We have already seen impressive growth to over 1TW of installed capacity and delivered immense benefits, including 300 million tonnes of avoided CO2. But the full potential of solar PV has yet to be unlocked.
“We need to unite the global industry to address our common challenges, maximize deployment, and deliver the solar revolution at speed, scale and to the highest quality standards.
“Every person in the world deserves access to solar electricity either from their roof or through their supplier, and no country should be left behind.
“With GSC’s renewed strategy and our growing network of companies around the world, we are working harder than ever to make this a reality.”
GSC also announced new work streams focusing on key areas essential for the future growth of the solar PV industry. These will be a collaboration between its members and other key stakeholders who are experts and changemakers in their field.
GSC’s new work streams include:
1 Grid Integration and Storage: Led by SMA Solar, this stream aims to share best practice on enhancing grid capacity and flexibility to accommodate the increasing generation of solar power, explore how solar can provide grid services and address technical and regulatory challenges. It will seek to put the grid challenge at the top of the global political agenda.
2 Finance: Led by Jinko Solar, it will develop innovative financial solutions and frameworks to make solar investments more accessible and attractive, especially in emerging markets, by engaging both private sector investors and development banks. The stream will create a global dialogue for the first time between the PV industry and financial sector to resolve common challenges and reduce the cost of finance for solar.
3 Supply Chain: Led as a collaboration by industry representatives from all regions of the world, this work stream focuses on strengthening the solar supply chain to ensure transparency, resilience, competition and sustainability.
4. Skills: Led in collaboration with GWO, an experienced training standards specialist, this workstream is dedicated to building a skilled workforce capable of supporting the expansion of the solar industry. A key deliverable of this workstream will be the development of the
In addition to the topical work streams, GSC will continue to develop its Regional Groups focusing on Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. These groups will work closely with members in the region and local stakeholders.
“The Global Solar Council’s rebranding and renewed strategic vision marks a pivotal moment for the organisation,” said chair of the GSC board and director of global affairs at SolarPower Europe Máté Heisz.
“We are turbocharging our efforts to accelerate solar energy around the world. The Global Solar Council is on a mission to unify all solar PV stakeholders towards the 1.5°C climate goal,” Heisz added.
“We are convinced solar energy will be the beating heart of our clean, sustainable future, and invite all solar players to join our quest”.
GSC strategy & communications director Alyssa Pek said: “The new brand is much more than a refreshed logo – it’s a visual and strategic representation of our growth as an organization.
“We’ve taken all the elements of our original logo and evolved it into a bolder symbol of optimism and hope.
“We’ve done the same thing with our strategic priorities. We’re building on the outstanding work of our predecessors and members, and evolving it to be even more ambitious and impactful – benefitting a wider group of members to realize our potential as an organization, and as an industry.”