Question 18074 — energy and fuels

Summary

Ms. Julie Laernoes alerts the Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, responsible for industry and energy, about the difficulties facing the French and European photovoltaic sector in the face of Chinese competition and the lack of political will. Protectionist measures imposing strict criteria on factories exporting solar panels, introduced by India or by the United States via the Inflation Reduction Act, led to a shift in Chinese production of photovoltaic panels to the European market, leading to the accumulation of stocks corresponding to two years of needs for photovoltaic modules. Indeed, in Europe, taxes on the sale of Chinese solar panels, implemented in 2013, were lifted in 2018, because they “disfavored” the development of solar energy in Europe. Consequently, in 2023, Europe has become one of the only markets open to China, which has massively sold its overproduction there thanks to an aggressive commercial strategy with solar panels at very low prices. Chinese solar panels are in fact sold three to four times cheaper than European panels, sometimes even at a loss, at half their manufacturing cost, with suspicions of subsidies on the part of of the Chinese government and forced labor in Xinjiang. This fierce competition from Chinese gigafactories has caused prices to collapse for a year on the European market. The prices of solar panels sold in Europe have thus decreased by 25% since January 2023. This situation endangers the European and French solar industry, with several companies having to file for bankruptcy and European production at half mast. In January 2024, the Dutch group Exasun filed for bankruptcy. In February, Meyer Burger, Germany's leading photovoltaic factory, announced its relocation to the United States after only three years of operation. And now, it is France which is failing, in the absence of a strong and appropriate political response. Indeed, the French Systovi factory, located in Carquefou, in the suburbs of Nantes in Loire-Atlantique, had to close its doors. This factory, one of the only two French factories manufacturing solar panels, planned to sell 150,000 panels in 2023, but only managed to sell 70,000. No buyer having been found, and in the absence of support from the State, the factory was forced to close its doors on April 17 and 81 employees are now out of work. Added to this are the difficulties encountered by the two gigafactory projects of photovoltaic panels: the Carbon project in Fos-sur-Mer in Bouches-du-Rhône and Holosolis in Hambach in Moselle. More than ten months after the announcement of these projects by the President of the Republic, doubt is growing about the possibility of one day seeing these two immense photovoltaic panel production factories emerge from the ground. Announced schedules are already behind schedule and there is still no sign of funding while the two installations require massive investments: 800 million euros for the Holosolis project and 1.6 billion for Carbon. Indeed, the dumping situation where Chinese photovoltaic panels are pouring onto the European market reinforces the reluctance of banks and investors and dissuades them from getting involved. This situation of great fragility for the solar sector, a key sector of the ecological transition, calls for a strong reaction from public authorities. This is an essential issue, both for the relocation of industrial production and associated jobs, and for the energy transition. If the construction of a solid industrial sector in France turns out to be a failure, this would mean that France does not take climate ambitions seriously, when all energy prospective scenarios indicate that it It is necessary to increase current solar capacities to reduce France's dependence on fossil fuels. Thus, she questions him about the measures envisaged by the Government to protect and support the structuring of the French photovoltaic sector.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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1. 28 May 2024

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