With practically-free solar panels being dumped on them by China, the EU has decided it wants solar energy to be more expensive. I thought the EU was supposedly a progressive organization; why would they favor coal over solar energy? Perhaps this could happen in the US. Though I can't understand why such a governing body would do this, especially one which appears to have many representatives telling their constituents about the importance of solar energy. Quality was not cited as a reason for the tax - "jobs" apparently are at stake, because after all that job-building austerity, the little guys need protection, too.
Just because they are refusing Chinese solar panels, that doesn't mean they're favoring coal over solar. That is a huge leap in logic.
If I didn't know better, I would think that the EU was a front for some coal cartel. Shutting down all those nuclear plants and now this.
This is great, we need tarriffs in the USA too, China is dumping crap products here as well. If they want access to our markets, they need to allow equal access to theirs and not steal our technology. Tarriffs FTW. DD
Solar is getting to be pretty dang big and the Chinese government has been subsidizing their companies to be the leader in the industry and kill solar manufacturers in other countries. It doesn't surprise me that the EU would fight back with protectionism -- as more socialist leaning, they'd probably do tariffs before subsidies. Obama went with propping up domestic companies and then got in trouble when they went bust anyway. So I can understand the trade war over it. Still, part of me is tempted to say go ahead and take the Chinese-tax-payer-subsidized solar panels and build out a distributed generation infrastructure more cheaply and quickly. Then layer on the protectionism to take over the replacement business.
Maybe it's a nationalistic or quality issue... There's been recent reports that Chinese panels from most manufacturers have a relatively high degredation rate (~20%) and would break down in 2 years rather than the advertised 20. Like what Juan wrote, if China is truly guilty of dumping then China's command economy is trying to tilt the marketplace so that private companies from other countries can't compete. Should China reach its desired endstate, they can jack up the prices with cheap--ly made goods unfettered. EU's reacting from textbook cheap tricks.
Suntech recently went bankrupt. Chinese companies are just as vulnerable as American or EU companies; and LDK Solar looks like it may go bankrupt as well.
