EU mulls emergency aid for collapsing solar producers
By Paul Homewood
h/t Dennis Ambler
New Green Jobs Update!
BRUSSELS — The European Commission is in early-stage talks on emergency measures to buoy drowning EU solar manufacturers who say Chinese subsidies are suffocating the industry, according to two people familiar with the matter.
On Monday, the Commission will make a statement on the teetering sector at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, while MEPs are also expected to debate ideas to prop up the industry.
Possible options could include direct support or trade defense measures, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly. The Commission, the EU’s executive, did not confirm whether it was considering a bailout or trade defense measures.
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-mulls-emergency-aid-for-collapsing-solar-producers/
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Quos vult perdere, prius dementat.
OOPS!
Quos <b>deus</b> vult perdere, prius dementat.
My Latin is a bit dodgy but is the translation ‘if at first you don’t eff up big time keep trying’?
Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad!
when the UK was a member state it looked as if the rest of them wanted internal free trade so long as Germany and France did well out of it. Their mercantilist attitudes were obvious.
now they are trying the same thing globally: trade with China unless EU manufacturers cannot cope with energy costs and regulation. In that case slap on subsidies and tariffs.
Unfortunately, solar panel manufacturing takes massive amounts of cheap energy to be made economically. That does not seem to be a priority for the EU.
Quite the contrary it wants electricity to be expensive.
Yet another ‘knickers-in-a-twist hand wringing’, policy that has a desirable, but as always, is either impossible or unattainable.
The definition of stupidity/insanity, is the repetition of failed actions or policies and expecting a different outcome!
If you do something that makes your products too expensive to compete on the international market then it is fine to put tariffs on imports as long as you understand that your products can only be sold internally. And the more you do it then the less you export and the less income the country generates. The problem comes if there are goods you have no choice but to import and you lack the money to pay for them. It wasn’t due to tariffs but incredible stupidity that Sri Lanka killed its exports and had no money for imports.
No, just wrong! Exports don’t generate income, they are the consumption of domestic imports such as labour by foreigners. And you don’t need exports to pay for imports – there are numerous ways of paying for them if you are a developed country. As for tariffs, there are few things all Economists agree on, but tariffs being bad is one of them. If our production of something is more costly than somebody else’s, we should buy that and redeploy the capital and labour to do something else
Wut?
Exports don’t generate income
That’s just goofy.
I demand all subsidies & green levies are removed from renewables, let them stand on their own against fossil fuels & nuclear – however, they won’t because too many elites are making millions upon millions with the whole net zero scam – its de facto corruption on an epic scale by those we put our trust in for honesty, integrity and democracy
Statement from Ed Miliband
“More green investment is urgently needed”
He’s welcome to do it. Out his own pocket, not ours.
The painful lesson of government picking winners is being re learned yet again, and yet again the taxpayer pays for governments mistakes.
How does he know? He presumes to know what hundreds of millions of people want and value based on his tiny sliver of understanding and knowledge. It is arrogant stupidity that contradicts what Nobel prize winners have proven.
6 years ago:
‘EU looks into extending import controls on Chinese solar panels”
Chinese solar panels were subject to a duty of up to 64.9% in Europe if they were deemed “too cheap”.
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1JF1C8/
7 years ago:
“The European Commission has proposed extending import duties on solar panels from China by 18 months, a shorter period than initially planned, and with a gradual phase-out, Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said on Wednesday…..
The EU and China came close to a trade war in 2013 over EU allegations of dumping by Chinese solar panel exporters.
To avoid that, both sides agreed to allow limited tariff-free imports of panels at a minimum price of 0.56 euros per watt, anti-dumping duties of up to 64.9 percent for those outside the agreement and anti-subsidy duties capped at 11.5 percent.”
https://jp.reuters.com/article/us-eu-china-trade/eu-softens-proposal-on-extension-of-chinese-solar-duties-idUSKBN15N18X/
Is that the Sun going down on the EU?
Is something wrong at WUWT?
“”Domain not found””
Working at 9.50pm
Looks like it has been hijacked. Isitdown reports:
Whatsupwiththat.com is PARKED
The website is either expired or listed for sale
Whois reports it as being for sale, despite the site registration not expiring until end May.
I don’t have an X/Twitter account, but I imagine it might be worth checking for news here if you do:
You can get even with them commies: just quit buying them. You already have more solar panels than you can ever need.
Sing along everyone!
Anything we can build China builds cheaper, China builds everything cheaper than us
No they don’t, yes they do, no they don’t, yes they do yes they do yes they doooo!🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳
The purchase costs of domestic PV panels is pretty irrelevant, it’s the cost of installation, scaffolding etc that balloons the costs to the consumer.
Octopus threaten to “go to France + Germany”
Greg Jackson whines that the public should pay the connection costs for solar and wind installed miles from anywhere – I daresay there’s projects where the cost of connection will be multiples of the cost of Chinese panels or windmills…
One has to suspect that Jackson would install half a dozen solar panels on Rockall and demand taxpayers pay to install an extension cable to the mainland.
Fine – if he wastes his company’s money abroad it will mean less taxpayers cash being wasted here. Interesting article though but no mention that he had bought Shell Energy so unfortunately I am in the process of becoming one of his customers. Give him a chance I suppose but pleasing to see my gas supplier Outfox top for customer service.
He isn’t wasting his money. It’s other people’s. Octopus doesn’t actually invest in renewables directly. It runs a fund for other investors to punt their money instead, and takes a commission for management services. Their latest accounts for Octopus Energy Group are due to be revealed at Companies House in a few days. I doubt the position will have changed, but a review might be interesting.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09718624/filing-history
it was always a fantasy the dream of Net Zero and Green Jobs – the Green Jobs were always going to be created, but they would be red tape demanding proof that all the “rules” were being obeyed and since heavy industry could never compete and exist, the managing of the rules would always lead to a diminishing workload as less and less was produced.
Just ask the politicians, Green fanatics and there like, what do they really want – even if we had no industry, CO2 would still exist – how do you employ economically 32,000,000 people with no means of production – intermittent power is of no use – with intermittent power, life as understood cannot go on – power is everything.
Take a minute- sit down and look around, water arrives at your house, you access it by turning a tap, that water is pumped, no power, no water – sewage is gravity fed into the main sewer, at some point it is pumped away to the sewage plant, no power, no sewage system – which also relies on water to provide momentum into the system, so a simple daily task stops because of intermittent power. So no water, what about light etc., the more you look around the more you realise that power is everything.
The only cure to save Europe’s eonomy is to discard “die Energiewende” and move back to Europe’s former, solid energy policy including building new nuclear power.
And forget all commitments like the Paris agreement. Follow the BRICS-block countries: Carbon dioxide is not a poison.
Obs. Unless you’re moron with no useful education.
Brian
CEng, CPhys, MBA
Nut Zero strikes again!
Ah solar, that bastion of intermittent day light power and nighttime zero power