Trade War Brews Between EU and China Over Solar Panels

Spiegel online
This week, a group of European solar panel firms asked the European Commission to levy punitive tariffs on their Chinese rivals, who they accuse of selling products at unfairly low prices. Chinese manufacturers are outraged, warning on Thursday that a trade war could be brewing.

BBC News
Chinese solar panel manufacturers have urged Beijing to respond to a threat of European anti-dumping restrictions.

Forbes

“Germany-based SolarWorld has once again demonstrated that it is willing to undermine the world’s solar industry in a desperate effort to avoid competition in the marketplace,” added the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy . “The entire global solar industry – manufacturers, suppliers, installers and consumers – has benefited from the sharp decline in the price of solar cells, and our industry’s future success is predicated on our ability to continually improve the economics of solar electricity generation.”

Trade War Continues: China Investigating Whether U.S. Dumped Solar-Grade Polysilicon

SolarIndustryMag.com
China has reportedly launched an investigation into whether exporters from the U.S. and South Korea illegally dumped solar-grade polysilicon, according to a report from Bloomberg, which cited China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC).
The probe was launched after four companies - GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd., LDK Solar Co., Daqo New Energy Corp. and China Silicon Corp. - filed complaints with the MOC, the Bloomberg report states.
These latest developments intensify the ongoing trade disputes between China and the U.S. following a ruling by the U.S. Department of Commerce that it would impose countervailing duties on Chinese solar cells and modules imported into the U.S.

Germany Considering Anti-Dumping Proceedings Against China

SolarIndustryMag.com
The German government is reportedly considering initiating solar module anti-dumping proceedings against China, according to a report from Reuters, which cited comments made by the German environment minister to German television station ZDF.
The news comes after many German solar companies have suffered from the effects of plummeting silicon and module prices, and following a preliminary determination from the U.S. Department of Commerce that China illegally dumped Chinese solar cells and modules into the U.S.

Amonix closes North Las Vegas solar plant after 14 months

ReviewJournal.com
The Amonix solar manufacturing plant in North Las Vegas, subsidized by more than $20 million in federal tax credits and grants, has closed its 214,000-square-foot facility about a year after it opened. (...) [T]he company began selling equipment, from automated tooling systems to robotic welding cells, in an online auction Wednesday. (...) [A] former material and supply manager at Amonix, said the plant has been idle since May 1, when he was laid off. At its peak, the plant had about 700 employees working three shifts a day to produce solar panels for a utility in Amarosa, Colo.

Centrotherm Joins the List of German Solar Insolvencies

SolarServer
centrotherm photovoltaics AG (Blaubeuren, Germany) on July 10th, 2012 has submitted an application to the relevant District Court of Ulm for the launching of insolvency protection proceedings (pursuant to the German Act Relating to the Further Simplification of the Reorganization of Companies [ESUG], and Section 270b of the German Insolvency Directive [InsO]), and for the opening of insolvency proceedings under its own administration in connection with this application.

GTM

German photovoltaic panel manufacturers are faced with reduced feed-in tariffs, increased competition from China, and a global oversupply of solar modules. Solar manufacturing tool and production line vendors vendors like centrotherm are faced with the same massive and persistent solar overcapacity.  GTM Research (...) estimates module supply to be in excess of global demand by nearly 100 percent this year, or roughly 59 gigawatts of total supply compared to 30 gigawatts of total demand. It's a dire situation for any equipment vendor. Centrotherm joins Germany's Q-Cells, Soltecture, Odersun, Inventux, Solar Millennium, Solarhybrid, and Sovello in the group of the country's extremely troubled or shuttered PV firms. Q-Cells was Germany's -- and once the globe's -- largest solar manufacturer. It is now on the brink of bankruptcy. As Shyam Mehta, GTM Senior Solar Analyst, has said, "'Consolidation' is a nice word that refers to a lot of ugly things.”

More affluent, older, rural residents installing more solar

SolarServer
The U.K.'s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has released a new report which finds that solar photovoltaic (PV) installations through the nation's feed-in tariff (FiT) are concentrated in more affluent households with higher energy consumption. "Identifying trends in the deployment of domestic solar PV under the Feed-in Tariff scheme" also finds that rural areas have a greater density of domestic PV installations, as do areas with more educated, older residents.

Schott Solar to quit crystalline silicon PV manufacturing

SolarServer
Citing "sever deterioration in market conditions" Schott Solar AG (Mainz, Germany) has announced that it will close its crystalline silicon solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing business in 2012. (...) The company will continue to manufacturing amorphous silicon thin film PV modules in Jena, Germany, as well as components for concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. Schott has more than 54 years of experience in PV manufacturing. The company began producing PV cells for space travel in 1958, and for terrestrial applications in the 1960's. The company began series production of PV modules in Europe in 1978.
A large number of German PV manufacturers have either left the business or declared insolvency since December 2012, including former PV manufacturing market leader Q-Cells SE, Inventux, SOLON SE, Soltecture GmbH and Sovello GmbH.

China warns EU against solar industry restrictions

China.org.cn
[Shen Danyang,] spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce told reporters at a press conference today that the European Union would hurt its own solar industry if it imposes restrictions on Chinese products.(...)
The spokesman stressed that he did not wish to see such a mutually beneficial situation compromised, and warned the EU that European firms would also suffer if restrictions were placed on Chinese solar firms.
"We do not want such a win-win situation being undermined or damaged," he said. "Faced with such a grave world economic situation, we think that China and the EU should enhance policy coordination and refrain from using trade protection measures."
He added that China has so far imported a total of 40 billion yuan (US$6.3 billion) worth of equipment to produce solar batteries, with 45 percent being purchased from Europe.
Shen warned that any sanctions against the Chinese solar cell industry would hurt EU firms as China buys a large volume of European raw materials in order to make photovoltaic products.

South Korea's Hanwha may buy Q-Cells

Reuters
South Korean group Hanwha may buy insolvent German solar group Q-Cells, once the world's largest maker of solar cells, a spokesman for Hanwha Corp said on Friday.