Tag: solar energy

If Europe does not face down Beijing over its export of below-cost solar panels, all our green technology and manufacturing will be lost, and the costs for greenhouse gas mitigation will go up, argues Milan Nitzschke.

The EU needs to advance its plans for renewable energy targets for 2030 soon, but only as part of a wider climate package, a member of energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger’s cabinet said yesterday (16 October).

SPECIAL REPORT / A spate of climate and clean energy-related trade squabbles is heightening fears that as recession advances, the world could be entering a period of tit-for-tat conflicts, many involving China.

Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany has no interest in starting a trade war with Beijing over solar exports to Europe, but stressed in recent remarks that China must take action to address distortions to fair competition in the sector.

Europe must agree 2030 milestones as soon as possible to spur investment in renewable energy, or green power growth will fizzle once firm policy runs out in 2020, the European Commission said on Wednesday (6 June) in its latest strategy statement.

The EU is facing an energy policy vacuum after a firm set of policy goals for renewable energy, carbon cutting and energy saving expires in 2020.

Unpredictable cuts to Europe's feed-in tariff schemes for solar energy threaten the recession-hit renewable sector with disaster, the head of the solar industry’s business association has told EurActiv.

Six EU-funded wind and solar energy projects which provide electricity for 600 West Bank Palestinians have been put on a ‘demolition list’ by Israel, allegedly in response to an EU heads of mission report which called for laws to prevent the financing of settlements.

Three of Europe's top renewable energy companies became the latest victims of a global collapse in prices, massive oversupply and governments slashing subsidies as austerity budgets are being adopted across the continent to contain the eurozone debt crisis.

Britain's solar subsidies will be dramatically cut by more than half, according to government documents that were prematurely published online and quickly taken down.

Solarworld AG is preparing an anti-dumping suit against Chinese firms operating in the EU, following a $1 billion action the German company launched in the US earlier this month. 

EU’s energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger, the director general for energy Philip Lowe, and the head of the EU’s Athens task force Horst Reichenbach have discussed the idea of enabling Greece to repay some of its debts to EU member states, such as Germany, by providing them with solar energy. 

Further mergers in the solar energy sector are unavoidable due to high competition as well as pressure from China, says Arno Behrens, head of energy at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), a Brussels-based think-tank.

As the UK's first solar panel-assisted charge point for electric vehicles prepares to open, solar vehicle driver Louis Palmer argues that solar taxis could offer a cheaper and greener alternative to electric cars.