madrid: Europe’s efforts to expand its green technology industry face a number of challenges, including high energy costs and supply chain problems, solar industry representatives gathered in Madrid said on Thursday (October 5). (Japanese) was warned.
The comments come as the European Commission and European governments consider tougher measures on imports, aiming to boost clean technology manufacturing in Europe and reduce dependence on China for products needed for the green transition. It was served in the middle of the day.
“We can’t manufacture it in Europe,” Gonzalo de la Vina, president of China’s solar energy company Trina Solar for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said at an event hosted by Spanish industry group Foro Solar.
The company has manufacturing operations in China, Vietnam and Thailand, but no manufacturing operations in Europe. The company plans to invest more than US$200 million (RM946 million) to build its first solar power manufacturing facility in the Western Hemisphere in Texas.
“Europe is not making profits,” he added.
European products are more expensive, said Christopher Atassi of Gonvari Solar Steel, part of a Spanish industrial company with factories around the world, including China, the United States, Spain and other European countries.
“There has to be an incentive for the end customer to buy European products,” he says. “If there is no demand for European products, it is difficult to make investment plans.”
Energy research firm Rystad Energy wrote in a July note that solar panels made in China cost about two-thirds of those made in Europe.
Panelists said Thursday this is partly due to rising energy and labor costs and a lack of competitive supply chains. For example, according to the European Commission, retail electricity prices paid by industrial customers in the EU in the third quarter of last year were about twice as high as in China.
Spain’s acting energy minister, Teresa Rivera, on Wednesday did not rule out the possibility of imposing tariffs on imports of materials used in solar power generation.
According to the European Commission, the EU sources more than 90% of its ingots and wafers for solar panels from China.
While the focus is often on China, Atassi said Europe needs to catch up with the US and US anti-inflation laws mean “the US model has beaten Europe 5-0”.
“Europe used to have a solar panel industry, but now it’s in Asia,” said Juan Balandiaran of renewable energy equipment maker Gamesa Electric, a Spanish subsidiary of Germany’s Siemens Energy. “It’s very difficult to make something from scratch.” – Reuters
