Solar industry

The solar industry is the entirety of industrial companies that, as suppliers, supply parts for the production of systems for the direct use of solar energy, e.g. B. solar cells for photovoltaic systems , deliver or are integrated into the manufacturing process itself. There are manufacturers who have developed the entire value chain and others who only carry out partial processes, such as wafer production . The solar industry also includes companies that supply systems and machines for the production of solar silicon. Another branch is solar thermal energy . Here the thermal energy is made usable. Craft businesses that install solar systems do not belong to the solar industry.

The solar industry delivers both to projects for large systems and to private households via a distribution system. The Photovoltaik Global 30 Index , which records listed companies worldwide, provides a good overview .

development

A solar thermal power plant with 45 kW was already in operation in Egypt in 1912 . Some of today's systems have 1000 times the capacity. With Nevada Solar One , one of the largest solar thermal systems went into operation in California in 2007.

By the end of 2012, photovoltaic systems with a peak output of around 69 GW had been installed in Europe and 101 GW worldwide. The Agua Caliente solar park is one of the largest ground-mounted systems in the world and is expected to have a peak output of 397 MW.

Crisis since 2012

Photovoltaic cell production (1995-2013)

The crisis in the solar industry arises - u. a. according to a listing according to ARD stock exchange - so far as follows:

December 13, 2011: The Berlin solar company Solon SE applies for insolvency proceedings to be opened. The Indian-Arab company Microsol took over Solon a few months later.
February 28, 2012: Insolvency proceedings opened against the Erlangen solar power plant manufacturer Solar Millennium .
April 3, 2012: Q-Cells files for insolvency proceedings. The company, which once had 1,300 jobs at its headquarters in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, will be taken over by the South Korean conglomerate Hanwha at the end of August 2012 and has thus been saved for the time being, most of the jobs will be retained.
April 17, 2012: The US company First Solar announces that it intends to close its plant in Frankfurt (Oder). The end of December is the last regular working day for employees. All 1,200 employees of the solar module manufacturer will lose their jobs by the end of May 2013 at the latest. The search for investors continues.
July 10, 2012: The machine manufacturer Centrotherm photovoltaics AG, which specializes in the solar energy business, files an application for insolvency under self-administration at the Ulm District Court. Since then, the company has been restructuring itself.

August 21, 2012: The solar company Sovello in Saxony-Anhalt stops production after an unsuccessful search for investors. The remaining 1,000 employees will be given notice for good. Sovello was a spin-off from the ex-world market leader Q-Cells and filed for bankruptcy in May 2012.

October 10, 2012: The US imposes punitive tariffs on Chinese solar imports to protect the domestic solar industry.

October 18, 2012: The solar technology manufacturer SMA Solar Technology , based in Niestetal near Kassel, wants to dispose of 450 of its 5,500 employees worldwide and 600 temporary workers.

January 24, 2013: The crisis in the solar industry is also causing increasing distress for Solarworld . The former model company announced that it should talk to creditors about a haircut. CEO Frank Asbeck announces further measures to reduce costs .

March 18, 2013: It is announced that the world's largest producer of photovoltaic modules, the Chinese company Suntech Power, is in financial difficulties. A few days later, the group had to file for bankruptcy.

March 22, 2013: The technology giant Bosch , which has a majority stake in Aleo Solar , announces its withdrawal from the solar business. Around 3,000 employees are affected. Bosch's solar division had a loss of a billion euros in 2012.

April 30, 2013: SolarWorld is facing increasing difficulties. The equity has been completely used up, the share price has reached a low and a restructuring plan with a drastic cut in debt and capital was agreed with the creditors.

June 18, 2013: Qatar Solar Technologies participates and supports the German SolarWorld and the company founder Frank Asbeck supports the company with a further 10 million euros from his private assets.

July 3, 2013: The solar technology manufacturer SMA Solar again announced that it would cut its staff by around 700 jobs by the end of 2013.

July 5, 2013: The solar company Conergy , based in Hamburg, employs around 1,200 people and files for bankruptcy.

The response of the federal government to a request from the Left Party parliamentary group shows the extent of the crisis in Germany. The number of employees in the solar industry fell to 87,000 in 2012. Sales have also decreased to an estimated 7.34 billion euros.

The manufacturer initiative "Pro-Sun", to which around 40 European solar companies belong, has applied to the EU Commission for anti-dumping proceedings against Chinese module manufacturers under the leadership of the German company SolarWorld. On September 6, 2012: the EU Commission initiated anti-dumping proceedings. On May 8, 2013, the EU Commission proposed temporary punitive tariffs averaging 46 percent on Chinese photovoltaic modules to protect the European solar industry. The tariffs should be individually tailored to the Chinese products and suppliers, so that higher compulsory charges are also possible. The People's Republic of China responded with an investigation into the dumping of European steel pipes, special chemical products and wine.

The Greens called on the EU Commission not to implement the punitive tariffs in order to avoid a trade war. The higher module prices resulting from the punitive tariffs would no longer allow an economical investment in solar power production at the current remuneration rates for solar power in most EU countries and also in Germany. The punitive tariffs are therefore useless. Instead, the Greens proposed an active industrial policy.

On December 2, 2013, the European Commission confirmed that the provisional anti-dumping duties had been finally imposed. There is currently an anti-dumping duty of 47.7% on solar modules from the People's Republic of China. In order to prevent circumvention, anti-dumping duties were later imposed on solar glass from China. In the course of time, however, it turned out that a large number of companies were circumventing the anti-dumping duties by shipping the goods from China to neighboring countries, such as B. Taiwan or Malaysia was shipped and from there entered the European Union with false proof of origin. The European Union is currently reviewing whether the anti-dumping duties can be lifted; ProSun has already filed a complaint against this.

Germany

In Germany, the solar industry owes its initial boom since 2000 in particular to the legally guaranteed feed-in tariff, which is regulated by the Renewable Energy Sources Act . From 2000 to 2011, the energy generated with photovoltaics increased from 0.064 TWh to approx. 19 TWh and thus around three hundred times.

Due to the relocation of production capacities to countries with lower wages, lower environmental standards and higher government subsidies, e.g. B. in Asia, module prices fell and put the German solar industry under increasing pressure. Numerous companies had to file for bankruptcy or carry out restructuring. The once world's largest solar cell manufacturer Q-Cells in Bitterfeld-Wolfen was also affected .

In contrast to photovoltaics , German manufacturers of solar thermal systems continue to be successful on world markets and benefit above all from the enormous growth in solar heat generation in China.

According to the Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft (BSW), there were around 10,000 companies in the solar industry in Germany in 2012, including around 350 producers. These employed a total of 120,000 people. The total sales of photovoltaics including mechanical engineering amounted to around 19 billion euros in 2011. The sales of industry and craft were added together.

On September 30, 2012, the Neuhardenberg solar park, at that time the largest solar park in Germany with an installed capacity of 145 MW, was installed. The construction took place within 5 weeks with the use of almost 2000 workers.

labour market

According to figures from the Federal Ministry of Economics, the number of jobs in the photovoltaic industry in Germany halved between 2012 and 2013 from 100,300 to around 56,000. The ministry sees the reason for this in an unsustainable photovoltaic expansion. The solar industry blames excessive cuts in subsidies.

China

Manufacturers from China now dominate the world market. The government plans to accelerate the expansion of solar energy to 35 gigawatts by 2015. This corresponds to an increase in the installation target value of around 70% and should lead to a consolidation of the industry. The oversupply of solar modules is to be minimized and the export dependency of the Chinese solar industry is to be reduced. In addition, corporate mergers and acquisitions are to be subsidized for tax purposes. At the same time, local governments are to be prevented from supporting insolvent solar companies in order to promote the market shakeout. As became known in 2014, state industrial espionage is also directed at the internal company of competing solar producers in the USA.

United States

The largest photovoltaic systems in the world are currently being built in the USA, in California and Arizona, each with 250 MW. One of the world's leading companies is First Solar , based in Tempe, Arizona . The company is the first pure photovoltaic manufacturer as a partner of the Desertec industrial initiative .