Pitch Me: How Europe Can Make a Clean Energy Sovereignty Comeback
Javier Sanz Rodriguez on industrial deeptech, strategic sovereignty, and building Europe’s next solar unicorns
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When Javier Sanz Rodriguez talks about Europe’s role in clean energy, it’s not theoretical — it’s deeply personal.
As Thematic Leader for Renewable Energies at InnoEnergy, Javier has helped launch and scale some of the continent’s most ambitious industrial ventures, including Verkor, FertigHy, and SUNWAFE.
Backed by the European Commission, InnoEnergy has helped birth 4 industrial unicorns and is now mobilising €160B in cleantech investment by 2030. It is is one of the largest European Cleantech Investors that has helped start companies like H2GreenStreel and Northvolt.
Javier’s mission is to create Europe’s solar manufacturing powerhouse, one breakthrough at a time.
But his journey into renewables began long before InnoEnergy.
“I’ve always been drawn to bringing new products and technologies to market,” he says.
“Renewable energies are a disruptive approach for re-inventing the way we traditionally thought about energy generation. Even today, with some of the technologies reaching maturity, the continuous innovation is a key characteristic that I enjoy.”
Europe was once a global leader in solar manufacturing. But that dominance eroded as Chinese producers flooded the market with low-cost exports — backed by a long-term industrial strategy, mineral control, and scale.
A major driver of this shift has been China's significantly lower labor and production costs, combined with massive government investment in manufacturing infrastructure. China poured approximately $50 billion into solar PV capacity - that’s 10 times more than all European governments’ investment combined. These moves enabled Chinese firms to rapidly scale operations, reduce costs, and dominate the global market with competitively priced products.
In addition to aggressive state support, China leveraged economies of scale and vertical integration, controlling every part of the supply chain—from raw materials to final product. This not only reduced manufacturing costs but also strengthened financial resilience, something European producers struggled to match. Meanwhile, Europe, despite leading early in innovation and deployment, lacked cohesive industrial policies to support local manufacturing. Tariff measures against Chinese imports were inconsistently applied and weakened by internal EU disagreements, undermining long-term competitiveness.
China expanded its grip on key supply chain segments, such as polysilicon production, and invested in maintaining technological quality while reducing costs. Europe’s failure to scale up production capacity or coordinate effective support for its solar sector left its firms vulnerable to global competition.
“Europe is great at research and early-stage innovation,” Javier explains. “But we’ve failed to scale. If we don’t act now, we risk losing not just competitiveness, but control over how we meet our climate and energy goals.”
In this Green Techpreneur edition, Javier shares timely insights into how Europe can gain sovereignty over its solar power and production.
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Europe was once a global leader in solar manufacturing. From your perspective, what were the key decisions or shifts that led to losing that edge to China?
Is not only about decisions but also related to market conditions. Europe was leading because at that time there were two factors that combined positively: market demand and technology leadership.
The demand growth, boosted by subsidies in Germany and Spain, was much bigger than the European supply growth, so China became the easy solution.
To meet EU demand, China pursued a long-term deliberate industrial strategy: vast state subsidies, control of critical minerals, and targeted global expansion, they have built massive industrial capacity. As a result, the European market has been flooded with low-cost exports which has undercut the existing domestic industry.
You’ve said now is a critical moment for Europe to reclaim strategic control. Why is the timing so urgent—and what risks do we face if we don’t act now?
As part of the European Green Deal, the European Union set ambitious climate and energy targets which drove strong and long-term demand for clean technologies like solar.
Now is a critical moment for Europe to reclaim strategic control because the global landscape is rapidly shifting. Europe excels in research and the early stages of innovation but struggles with scaling up manufacturing. Meanwhile, regions like Asia are advancing in both innovation and scaling, while the U.S. has been strong in attracting players and scaling up operations.
If Europe doesn’t act now, it will continue to lose its competitive edge to these regions, particularly Asia, where aggressive industrial policies, subsidies, and market dominance are reshaping global supply chains.
As countries move quickly toward net-zero, Europe has a unique opportunity to lead. But if we fail to accelerate efforts in innovation and scaling, we could fall behind in critical industries like solar, undermining our energy security, economic growth, and the ability to independently achieve our climate goals.
There’s a lot of excitement around next-gen technologies like NexWafe. What makes them different from past efforts, and how close are we to seeing them scale?
NexWafe introduces a new approach to silicon wafer production for solar cells. Departing from traditional methods that involve melting polysilicon and slicing ingots, NexWafe employs a direct gas-to-wafer epitaxial process. This technique grows monocrystalline silicon layers directly onto reusable seed wafers, effectively eliminating energy-intensive steps like ingot pulling and wire sawing.
NexWafe's new process offers:
✅ 90% less silicon waste – drastically reduces material loss compared to traditional methods.
⚡ 40% lower energy consumption – cuts operational energy needs, reducing costs.
💸 Significant cost reductions – achieved through material and energy efficiency.
🌍 Up to 70% lower CO₂ emissions – supports more sustainable manufacturing.
🛠 Streamlined production – fewer steps make the process faster and more efficient.
🇪🇺 Boosts Europe’s solar competitiveness – helps retain a strategic edge in green tech innovation.
This kind of innovation can be essential to retain Europe’s competitiveness in the solar industry.
InnoEnergy has helped birth four industrial unicorns. What have you learned about the conditions required to scale industrial DeepTech successfully in Europe?
Scaling industrial deep tech in Europe requires a combination of factors. First, robust support for research and development is essential to bring technologies to maturity. Next, effective public funding mechanisms must be in place to support scale-up while also de-risking projects enough to attract private capital. Just as important are favourable market conditions, which create demand certainty, reduce market risk, and enable cost reductions through volume.
What sets Europe apart is the EU’s strong, legally binding commitment to climate action, anchored in the European Climate Law. This foundation continues to offer what investors value most: regulatory certainty for long-term investment.
Can you break down how initiatives like ROSI and projects under the WEEE Directive are helping build circularity into Europe’s solar strategy?
The EU’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive mandates the responsible collection and treatment of end-of-life solar panels, preventing them from ending up in landfill. This is creating a new market opportunity within the EU to recover valuable raw materials critical to solar panel production.
ROSI, which has a factory running in France and is expanding to Germany and Spain, focuses on recovering high-purity materials such as polysilicon, not only from used panels but also from production waste like wafer dust. These materials are then reintegrated into the manufacturing cycle, reducing reliance on virgin resources.
As solar demand continues to rise, Europe’s ability to lead on quality, sustainability, and supply chain resilience, rather than volume, is significant and demonstrates how circularity can become a competitive advantage for the EU’s solar strategy.
What role do strategic joint ventures and cross-border collaborations play in regaining manufacturing competitiveness—and what’s missing right now to make more of them happen?
Strategic cross-border collaborations are essential to regaining Europe’s manufacturing competitiveness. They accelerate innovation, enable scale, and build resilient, integrated value chains across borders. But to unlock their full potential, Europe needs to put in place conditions that make these collaborations commercially viable. This includes smart and effective trade measures to prevent market distortions, and a sharper industrial strategy that blends investment incentives with temporary but targeted protections (such as demand-side incentives, ramp-up and production support, and selective import duties).
These measures will be critical over the next 4–5 years and should remain in place until European clean tech companies can scale and compete on a level playing field with heavily subsidised global players.
In addition, strategic collaboration with China under clear conditions that align with EU industrial objectives, could accelerate re-industrialisation in Europe. Joint ventures with Chinese firms on European soil offer a fast track to scale production, transfer essential industrial know-how, and efficiently rebuild critical manufacturing capacity.
If you could wave a magic wand and introduce just one policy shift that would unlock real acceleration in European solar manufacturing, what would it be?
To support European solar manufacturing, reshaping the EU’s FDI screening policy into a strategic industrial tool, one that enables the right industrial partnerships to rebuild our capabilities, could make a real difference.
As mentioned, over 80% of the global photovoltaic value chain is dominated by China. Full reshoring to Europe isn’t realistic, but targeted reinvestment is needed.
With the right guardrails preserving EU ownership and control minority foreign investment could help scale production, transfer know-how, and rebuild capacity where it matters most – for example in strategic parts of the value chain like ingots and wafers production where capacities are limited and leave Europe exposed. Joint ventures on European soil can fast-track industrial recovery. If we manage global investment wisely, it can support both Europe’s climate and sovereignty ambitions.
Another essential tool is the swift and targeted implementation of the Net Zero Industry Act. Including "EU-made" requirements in public auctions and procurement across the EU would send a strong signal of commitment and help unlock both public and private investments in the photovoltaic (PV) industry.
Italy and Austria have already introduced tax incentive schemes that reward products made in Europe. However, a coordinated effort at the EU level is needed to deliver a clear message about the strategic importance of the photovoltaic industry for Europe.
InnoEnergy is now mobilising €160 billion in cleantech investment by 2030. What’s your internal compass for choosing the right projects and companies to back?
As an impact investor, we are focused on investments with high environmental and socio-economic impact, namely potential to reduce emissions and create quality jobs in Europe. Our rigorous due diligence process before investment evaluates market potential, financial viability, and intellectual property strength, among other criteria.
We have an Early-stage focus – we invest where we see the greatest market potential, across sectors such as:
Energy storage
Innovative renewables
Tidal and wave energy
🔧 Beyond capital – We know high-impact, high-risk projects need more than funding to succeed.
🛠 Tailored support to de-risk and scale, including:
Access to talent and markets
Technology development support
Industrial expertise
Governance and strategy guidance
This is the same approach we apply when building our own companies, for example Verkor, GravitHy, Holosolis, and FertigHy. We are currently building our next industrial venture, SUNWAFE, which will manufacture ingots and wafers in Spain.
Looking across your own career, what’s been one of your proudest moments?
There are several and that is a reminder that I’m getting older. But looking at the most recent one, the company builder SUNWAFE and its recent milestones achieved is one of those moments that give you the sense of having an impact.
What’s your favourite principle in business and in life?
“Cross one bridge after another” is quite an important approach for me.
It keeps me focus on those things that need to be solved first not losing to much time in other topics on which focus will be required later.
When you’re not immersed in cleantech strategy, how do you unwind or recharge?
Family is the obvious one. In addition, I walk a lot when I want to think, or ski when I do not want to think too much.
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Further reading on the GT magazine:
How Homaio is Cracking Open Lucrative EU ETS Investing
Smokestack Industries: How GlassPoint is Disrupting the World’s Largest Market for Renewables
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