SolarPower Europe calls for industrial strategy for local supply chain development
The European solar industry’s trade body has called on the EU to deliver a clear strategy to incentivise solar manufacturing investment in Europe, rather than impose tariffs on cheap imports from China.
SolarPower Europe said on October 2 that a “perfect storm” is hitting Europe’s solar photovoltaic market, which has seen sharp drops in the price of solar modules and other system components in recent years.
The announcement comes as European governments explore possible action on imports to help expand clean tech manufacturing on the continent and reduce reliance on China for technologies crucial to the energy transition.
This follows concerns in the European wind sector over rising costs and an investigation launched in September by the European Commission into subsidisation of battery electric vehicles manufactured in China and exported to Europe.
“Tariffs are not a good answer to the current challenges in the European solar industry,” said Gunter Erfurt, chief executive of Swiss solar equipment supplier Meyer Burger and a board member at SolarPower Europe.
“Instead of sanctioning the entire industry through tariffs, we must incentivise solar installations that originate from resilient European solar production,” he added.
US investment
Meyer Burger has a solar cell factory in Thalheim, Germany, and is building a module facility in nearby Freiburg. But the company has shifted investment to the US, where the Inflation Reduction Act has led to billions of dollars worth of clean tech investment.
“We urge EU leaders to deliver and implement an industrial strategy for solar, as clear and ambitious as the US IRA,” said SolarPower Europe president Aristotelis Chantavas.
In July, Meyer Burger announced it would invest in a new solar cell manufacturing facility in Colorado Springs, in the US, which would supply its module facility under construction in Goodyear, Arizona.
Among the European victims of tougher market conditions and insufficient support is Norwegian Crystals, a solar ingot and wafer manufacturer, which filed for bankruptcy in late August. The company previously planned to help revive Europe’s solar industry by increasing its wafer production capacity from 0.5GW to 6.5GW.
More than $19bn was pledged to solar power projects in Europe by foreign investors last year, making it by far the largest destination region, according to greenfield investment tracker fDi Markets. So far this year, $32bn worth of foreign solar projects have been announced in Europe, representing 70 per cent of the global total.
The region was also home to eight of the top 10 countries by installed solar capacity per capita worldwide in 2022, according to SolarPower Europe.
This article first appeared in fDi Intelligence