EU PV Antidumping. Brussels needs to exist.

After some quarters of being implemented, there are constant reports saying that Chinese PV modules are being sold to the European Clients below the minimum import price agreed in the China-EU settlement. The latest we hear was coming from EU Prosun.

In our view, one could only expect that violations of the settlement would happen. History shows that market players almost always find ways to circumvent such barriers. Solar PV developers that are complying with EU solar PV anti-dumping duties are having problems to implement new projects and a large amount of jobs seem to be lost for this reason.

We hear everywhere that power is expensive in EU, making us non-competitive in a global economy and that we want to reduce power prices. If we artificially increase the cost of the equipment for new solar installations we are not helping with this objective. In the meantime we also continue to hear that we need to increase clean production of energy. Strange…

It seems that a few more bureaucrats in Brussels may have found a new reason for existence. Initially, they had to put a lot of resources to negotiate the deal with the Chinese. They also have to review the agreement quarterly. Now, they will have to investigate violations of the agreement. This is great for them. They seem to have found a long term job in managing this issue.

The conclusion is that one has to question whether the European Commission was aware of the impact that the anti-dumping measures would have on jobs, cost for the tax-payer, developers that comply with the rules, cost of solar power to households, etc.