SolarPower Europe

The European solar market decreased by 21% last year. This disappointing if not unexpected news opened SolarPower Europe’s annual summit in Brussels today. Grid integration of Europe’s solar capacity, EU market rules for protecting the ‘prosumer’ and reforms to the continent’s faltering Emissions Trading Scheme were major themes during the plenary session.

The 18-month extension to antidumping (AD) and anti-subsidy duties applied to Chinese solar exports has caused mixed reactions within the industry. The measure should be published on the EU Official Journal by the end of this week.

The Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxemburg this week confirmed the validity of the import duties, rejecting all complaints from 26 PV manufacturers. In the opinion of the judges the measures are necessary to compensate damage caused to the European solar industry by dumped imports from China.

Two important votes on the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy trade measures against solar cell and module imports from China took place amongst the Anti-Dumping and Anti-Subsidy Committee of the EU Member States yesterday, during which the committee voted to approve the proposed extension of anti-subsidy measures, but voted to oppose the extension of the anti-dumping measures.

The proposed extension of trade measures on solar panels and cells imported into the EU from China would represent a severe blow to the sector, says SolarPower Europe. EU ProSun, however, welcomes the recommendation. Minimum Import Price to be reduced in 2017.

Update from SolarPower Europe reveals that the continent installed 1.56 GW in the months from June to September, a 10% decline on Q3 2015. First nine months of the year saw 5.3 GW installed, a decline of 18%.