Europe’s solar power industry has warned that a glut of cheap Chinese imports has pushed some manufacturers to the brink of bankruptcy, hampering the EU’s efforts to boost local production of green technologies.SolarPower Europe, a trade group for the industry, wrote to the European Commission on Monday that soaring stockpiles and “fierce competition” among Chinese manufacturers to gain market share in Europe had pushed down the prices of solar modules by more than a quarter on average since the beginning of the year.
“This is creating concrete risks for companies to go into insolvency as their significant stock will need to be devalued,” the letter said.
Norwegian Crystals, a producer of the ingot used in solar cells, had already filed for bankruptcy last month, it added. Norsun, another Norwegian solar company, this month said it would suspend production until the end of the year.