Europe's solar industry warns of bankruptcy risk as prices drop

Europe’s solar power industry warned on Monday of a “precarious” situation for European solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers as solar PV prices reached record lows. Industry trade group SolarPower Europe said in a letter sent to the European Commission that European companies risk bankruptcies, which they said would hurt the EU’s goal of reshoring 30 GW of the solar PV supply chain. Prices of PV modules have dropped by more than a quarter since the beginning of the year, according to SolarPower. “This is creating concrete risks for companies to go into insolvency as their significant stock will need to be devalued,” SolarPower Europe said. Strong demand, combined with large investments and fierce competition among Chinese suppliers led to overcapacities in the market and a price fall. The industry calls on the European Commission to buy up European companies’ solar module stockpiles, to set up a Solar Manufacturing Bank at EU level and to boost demand for solar PV in Europe among others. Reporting by Marine Strauss, Editing by GV De Clercq Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read Next Solar China’s Trina Solar to build solar photovoltaic plant in Texas China’s Trina Solar said on Monday it will invest more than $200 million to build a solar photovoltaic manufacturing facility in Texas.