Solar panel industry face export power inverter challenges

The solar panel  trade disputes between China and Europe triggered increasing attention globally in 2012 and will continue to bring deep changes to the industry.

"The trade conflicts in the photovoltaic solar panel  industry between China and Europe should end as soon as possible because it is bad for everyone," said Reinhold Buttgereit, secretary-general of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association.

He made the comment to China Daily during the 2012 Intersolar panel  China Conference in December, one month after Europe initiated an anti-subsidy investigation on solar panel  imported from China, in addition to the anti-dumping probe it launched in early September.

He said the association had suggested the European Union should accelerate the investigations into China's PV solar panel  products.

"I hope this conflict won't take too long to come to an end because we will have to cooperate again eventually,grid tie inverter no matter who wins," said Buttgereit.

Because Europe is China's largest overseas market for PV solar panel , accounting for more than 70 percent of the country's exports, the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations started by the EU could hurt the Chinese solar panel  industry more severely than a US probe launched in October.

About one year after the United States' arm of the Germany-based company Solar panel World AG complained that Chinese producers were dumping solar panel  products at below the cost of production in the US and receiving "illegal" government subsidies, the US decided in November to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese PV solar panel  products, with the highest one at about 250 percent, over the next five years.

Around 20 percent of China's PV solar panel  were exported to the US market before the ruling was announced.

The tariffs will raise costs for Chinese solar panel  manufacturers, leading to a decline in orders from the US.

Chinese companies hoped to rely on other overseas markets when they had to relinquish business in the US so the EU's probe came as bad news and has aroused serious concerns within China's solar panel  industry.

"This is the third time that I have been in China," said Buttgereit. "I can feel that people from Chinese companies and my Chinese colleagues are more nervous than the last two times when I visited China under the current intense situation."

China launched an investigation on Nov 1 into polysilicon imports from the EU and on Nov 5 China lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization regarding local content requirements in some EU countries.

Some Chinese experts said the moves were mere posturing.

"The trade war is bad for everyone no matter whether it's foreign countries or China," said Li Junfeng, deputy director at the Energy Research Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission.

He said the trade war acts against the principles of the solar panel  industry, which aims to reduce the cost of renewable energy for sustainable development in the long term.

The Coalition for Affordable Solar panel  Energy, an organization of American solar panel  companies representing about 98 percent of the US solar panel  industry jobs, believes free trade and industry competition are critical to making solar panel  electricity affordable for everyone.

After the US announced the ruling on imported Chinese solar panel  products, the coalition said it was concerned about the growing global trade war, which will hurt American solar panel  industry jobs, growth and customers.

"On behalf of the 97 percent to 98 percent of the US solar panel  industry that fought against Solar panel World, we are all looking forward to ending this distraction and returning to our everyday focus of creating jobs and lowering renewable energy costs," said Jigar Shah, president of CASE.

China imports large quantities of polysilicon and equipment for PV solar panel  production from the US every year, which means it will hurt US manufacturers if Chinese companies suffer from the punitive tariffs and experience a reduction in equipment demand, said Gao Hongling, secretary-general of the China Photovoltaic Industry Alliance.

The way out

The Chinese government has made efforts to help the solar panel  industry by expanding the domestic application of solar panel  power inverter  plants and encouraging the distribution of solar panel  power inverter  generation.

Starting in November, China's largest utility company State Grid tie inverter  began to provide a free service that allows PV solar panel  power inverter  producers to connect to the national grid tie inverter , a move considered "very encouraging" by industry experts.

"The biggest obstacle for China's new energy industry is the on-grid tie inverter  problem. The new policy will solve it to a certain extent," said Meng Xian'gan, deputy director of the China Renewable Energy Society.

According to the new policy, the State Grid tie inverter  branches at city level will have the rights to approve distributed solar panel  power inverter  plant projects with installed capacities of less than 10,000 kilowatts each to be connected to the grid tie inverter . Distributed solar panel  power inverter  plants are self-supporting small scale units that have the ability to sell excess capacity to the grid tie inverter .

Meng said the new plan shows the government's determination to support the domestic solar panel  industry. It was echoed by the State Council's official statement of supporting distributed power inverter  generation on Dec 19.

Distributed solar panel  power inverter  generation plays a major role compared with the integrated power inverter  generation in developed countries including most European countries, the US and Japan, according to Wang Sicheng, a senior researcher at the Energy Research Institute.

He said the cost of electricity transmission in western China, for example, is high because of the long distances involved. Distributed power inverter  plants therefore have advantages by saving costs.