ESMC’s Board of Director Changes — Increased European value chain representation

On Monday, the 11th of March in Frankfurt, the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) convened for its Annual General Meeting, marking the conclusion of operations for 2023 and setting sights on the year ahead. Four new company representatives have been elected to the Board of Directors, expanding ESMC’s representation across the European PV value chain and nationalities.

After a democratic voting among all present members, we are thrilled to welcome our new Board Directors, who bring representation from various segments of the European PV value chain, ranging from polysilicon to inverters, and encompassing both large-scale manufacturers and industry startups. Their dedication to the association and their experience will undoubtedly prove to be invaluable assets to ESMC. The new directors are:

• Christian Westermeier, Vice President Customer & Quality Management at Wacker Chemie.
• Cosimo Gerardi, Head of Innovation, Chief Technology Officer of 3SUN.
• Jan Jacob Boom-Wichers, CEO of Holosolis.
• Thomas Rührlinger, Business Development, Public Affairs at Fronius International.

Additionally, we express our joy in the re-election of the following Board members, who have committed to serving another two-year term:

• Dr. Andreas Bett, Director of Fraunhofer ISE.
• Gaëtan Masson, CEO & Founder of Becquerel Institute & Partner at Carbon Solar
• Pierre-Jean Ribeyron, Head of Technology at CEA Liten/INES.
• Stefan Rinck, CEO of SINGULUS Technologies.

Christian Westermeier will also be joining the ESMC Executive as co-chair, sharing the position with co-founders of ESMC, Dr. Carsten Rohr (Norsun), and Gaëtan Masson. Dr. Westermeier comments on his new role:

“The EU has set an ambitious target of 30 GW PV manufacturing capacity by 2030. The current framework is not yet sufficient. The mission is that companies, associations and political stakeholders need to improve the framework to provide easily accessible and straightforward support schemes for OPEX and CAPEX enabling predictable investment cases. It is my pleasure to contribute to this mission”.

Additionally, Jan Jacob Boom-Wichers will take on the role of vice-chair, joining the current vice-chairs, Dr. Davor Sutija (Nexwafe) and Vincent Bes (Photowatt), in their responsibilities.

We are pleased that this development ensures representation from all major players in the European PV market not only among the members but also within the ESMC Board and a diversification in terms of nationalities. This underscores the significance of ESMC in the European organizational landscape and the importance of the issues and topics we advocate — establishing a level playing field for European PV manufacturers compared to their international counterparts.

The ESMC Board, Secretariat, and its members extend heartfelt gratitude to the members of the ESMC Board of Directors who steps down from their seats, Prof. Dr. Eicke Weber (Chairholder, co-founder & Senior advisor of MCPV), Dr. Lucas Weiss (CEO of Voltec Solar), Dr. Radovan Kopecek (co-founder and director of ISC Konstanz), and Dr. Torgeir Ulset (Commercial Director of REC Solar Norway AS), for their invaluable contributions to ESMC.

Given ESMC’s staggered board structure, not all board seats were up for re-election, and several directors continued their tenure.