Duty to be imposed on Chinese Solar PV modules in June 2013

Announced this week by the EU are measures for combatting alleged 'dumping' by Chinese Solar PV manufacturers of products at cost or below price to force European manufacturers into decline.

Certainly, as an installer, this false module pricing has enabled us to offer a 4kWp system for around £5k, using these good quality modules, which we urge people to take advantage of soon.

It is proposed a Duty of 10% or more will be levied on all Chinese Solar PV modules being imported into Europe, and this Duty may well be backdated to 6th March when enforced, which will cause financial hardship to importers later this year. Examples of probable Chinese manufacturers hit by this Duty will be Suntech, Canadian Solar, Yingli, Trina and many more.

In the USA, a similar Duty has been imposed for some time, which has reduced use of Chinese PV modules by as much as 80%.

We find that good quality European based modules, which we currently use for our high end premium systems for maximum annual power generation, cost not much more per watt, but adds up to being substantially higher installed cost. Though the long term power generation will is a far better benefit, which can be seen on the latest Photon independant test, which shows Euro manufacturers having a better annual generation, we are finding people are currently going for the lowest cost.

Resource: Reuters