2024-02-27 07:30:58
Faced with Chinese competition which has been flooding the European market with low-cost solar panels for several months, European players are calling for emergency measures.
The crisis is once once more affecting the European photovoltaic construction sector. As Europe considers opening an investigation into China’s subsidies for its solar panels, the European Solar Industry Council (ESMC) calls on the European Commission for emergency measures.
This professional organization, which represents European manufacturers of solar panels, warns of the risks of relocation abroad and bankruptcy of its members in the next two months. “ We need active political and financial support now”, warns Johan Lindahl, secretary general of the ESMC. “ Without emergency measures, we are set to lose more than 50% of the EU’s modern solar PV module production capacity in the next two months », alerts Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, political director at ESMC.
Surplus solar panels to be sold
China currently accounts for almost 80% of global solar energy production. The ESMC estimates that there is a stock of photovoltaic modules imported from China, in European ports and warehouses, waiting to flood the European market at low prices. Between 140 and 170 million modules, this stock would represent a capacity of 70 to 85 gigawatts (GW).
For comparison, the EU installed around 56 GW of new solar capacity in 2023. According to ESMC, the production capacity of photovoltaic modules at European level amounts to 11 GW on paper. But ” it is estimated that only regarding half of this capacity is operational » et « Only around 2 GW of modules were produced by European PV module manufacturers in 2023 due to low module prices », calculates the ESMC.
The oversupply has indeed led to a collapse in these prices. “ Costs for low-end solar panels on the wholesale market are around 9 cents per watt-peak at the end of January 2024, down 52.6% from the end of January 2023 », Shares David Gréau, general secretary of Enerplan, a French union of solar energy professionals. This resulted in a similar drop of 53.3% on panels “ mainstream » and 42.5% on the signs “ high efficiency », he shares, evoking the figures of pvXchange. This collapse leaves European manufacturers with large stocks of unsold goods. According to Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, this stock would represent around 0.8 GW of solar capacity.
Defend European production
However, the European Commission plans to produce 40% of the solar panels installed in Europe in 2030. And this, while Europe intends to triple its solar capacity by this horizon, increasing it from 260 GW to 750 GW. But the current situation greatly compromises this vision and announcements of production site closures continue. Europe might thus become completely dependent on imports of photovoltaic solar modules.
In fact, the ESMC calls for establishing a mechanism to buy back their stocks accumulated in the EU and to finance projects using photovoltaic solar modules produced by the EU. The European Solar Industry Council also calls for the creation of a temporary framework for the next two to three years, before the entry into force of the measures planned under the regulation for an industry net zero » and the Regulation on the prohibition on the Union market of products resulting from forced labor. This framework aims in particular to reserve 30% of the European renewable energy tenders (or 6 GW) to products manufactured in Europe. It must be validated by Parliament next April and will be effective 18 months following the entry into force of the regulation.
But it would also be dangerous to completely close the borders to Chinese photovoltaic panels, because it is currently illusory to think of achieving European objectives without these first. “Given that we are currently very heavily dependent on imports to meet the EU’s solar deployment targets, any potential measures need to be put into perspective with the targets we have set for the energy transition »declared Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for Financial Services, during the plenary session of the European Parliament on February 5.
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