Import duties on Chinese PV bankrupt German solar firm

Yesterday, Gehrlicher Solar file for bankruptcy at court in Munich. In a press release, the firm says import duties on Chinese solar panels mean it will no longer be able to pay back its debt.

The EU is following the example of the US and imposing import duties on Chinese PV products, so EU companies stand to benefit, right? Not necessarily – it turns out that the whole matter is more complex.

Gehrlicher Solar, for instance, is a German PV firm that went into business in 1994 – a full decade before the country had implemented a full-fledged feed-in tariffs for photovoltaics. As you can see from its US website, it has become a global organization, but one that mainly develops and installs systems. While it does make PV products, most of them are related to installation, such as mounting systems.

But apparently, the company used solar panels from China and was unable to switch to products made elsewhere. It thus saw its projects made uncompetitive by the EU's recent decision. Though the firm did not say so explicitly, the shrinking German market also mainly affects developers; in 2013, new PV installations have been roughly cut in half, as Renewables International explained yesterday.

The new import duties on Chinese panels and cells are most likely to help such manufacturers within the EU, but it remains to be seen whether the main plaintiff in the case, SolarWorld, will survive. Yesterday, the firm held a meeting with noteholders to appoint a representative and announced that it would present a restructuring plan "probably by August 6."

In similar news, Conergy filed for bankruptcy on Friday. All three of these firms were founded in the 1990s, the "long before the term Energiewende had become fashionable," as the founder of Gehrlicher stated on filing for bankruptcy. But of course, that's only partly true – Germany had citizen Energiewende groups in the 1970s. (Craig Morris)