EU launches investigation into Chinese wind turbine suppliers

“We are launching a new inquiry into Chinese suppliers of wind turbines,” said Vestager. “We are investigating the conditions for the development of wind parks in Spain, Greece, France, Romania and Bulgaria.”

She said that unspecified wind turbine manufacturers from China have allegedly distorted market competition in the European renewable energy market.

“We're making full use of the tools that we have. But I can't help feeling that this is also playing whack-a-mole. We need more than a case-by-case approach. We need a systematic approach. And we need it before it is too late,” Vestager said, without providing more details about the ongoing investigation. “We can't afford to see what happened on solar panels, happening again on Electric vehicles, wind or essential chips.”

Vestager added that trustworthiness criteria such as environmental footprint, labor rights, cybersecurity and data security should be prioritized in clean energy technology manufacturing. She also suggested applying non-price criteria in renewable energy auctions.

“Those criteria would be developed among like-minded partners. But they would apply to all trustworthy producers across the world. That way, we can reach critical mass, and align our competitiveness with the values that we share,” Vestager said. “This is what the Inflation Reduction Act missed, in my opinion. By tying the criteria to local production, instead of trustworthiness, the US limited the potential scale for western producers. And it forced us to react by enabling matching subsidies.”

This new investigation follows another probe launched last week to determine whether two consortia violated the Foreign Subsidies Regulation in a 110 MW PV tender in Romania.