Billions of dollars of subsidies in the US are attractive: Swiss solar energy pioneer is moving to America

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In East Germany, Swiss solar company Meyer Burger operates one of Europe’s largest solar module factories. The modules are assembled on an area of ​​25,000 square meters in Freiberg, Saxony. However, production has been stopped for a few days. The jobs of 500 people are at risk

For future companies like Meyer Burger, Europe has become a death zone. In September, Norwegian company Norsun announced that it would temporarily halt production and lay off workers. Finnish solar energy company Valoe applied for debt restructuring in December to avoid bankruptcy. A bankruptcy case has been filed for Austrian PV manufacturer Energetica. Germany’s Solarwatt had to lay off ten percent of its workforce. And now: Meyer Burger. The last headline of the “Handelsblatt” newspaper was “The end game has begun for the solar industry”.

The decline is due to cheap imports from China, which are heavily subsidized by Beijing. Some of the products come from parts of China associated with forced labor. For this reason, the United States imposed an import ban on panels containing components from China’s Uyghur region, Xinjiang, in 2022. Since then, warehouses in Europe have been filling up with cheap goods from China.

escape to the USA

Politicians largely seem unconcerned about the failure of the European solar industry. A proposal by Meyer Burger and other solar companies to promote products of European origin, for example through higher feed-in tariffs, has so far failed due to resistance from Finance Minister Christian Lindner (45) of the FDP. German politicians want to discuss the issue for the last time in April.

Meyer Burger doesn’t want to wait that long: A spokesman for Meyer Burger confirmed the factory: “We have to close our factory in Freiberg, Germany, because Berlin does not support the German solar industry and instead opens the door to China.” Lockdown in East Germany.

Meyer Burger wants to reorganize itself and move production to America. It was decided this week that the new funds that the company wanted to raise through a capital increase would be transferred to the expansion of two production facilities in the USA. There are millions of dollars in financing. Like China and India, the United States strategically supports future technologies such as the solar energy industry with government funds.

This week it became clear just how important technology is to Americans. Joe Biden (81) flew to Arizona and announced a financing package of up to $8.5 billion for the US chip giant Intel. In addition, $11 billion in loans will flow to computer chip factories in four US states. Goal: The fiscal injection will help increase the U.S. share of global high-tech chip production to 20 percent by the end of the decade.

Swiss research for China

If Meyer-Burger manages to shift production to the USA, the company will conduct research and development exclusively in Europe and produce machines for solar cell and module production. In addition to facilities in Germany, the company also operates three locations in Switzerland. In addition to the headquarters, some departments of research and facilities engineering are also located here.

If solar panel production is stopped in Europe, suppliers will also face serious problems. These are, for example, inverter manufacturers or glass manufacturers who specialize in the surfaces of solar modules. Production ends when the glass tanks are closed.

From an industrial policy perspective, this development is a disaster. As a crucial component of the energy transition, Europe makes itself completely dependent on China and, in the future, on the United States. At the same time, Europe continues to lead in photovoltaics research thanks to generous funding. Switzerland is also considered a pioneering country based on early generation of electricity from sunlight. Besides ETH in Lausanne and Zurich, Empa is also conducting cutting-edge research in this field.

So what does this mean? Who benefits from this? Of course, there are small seeds and start-ups that emerge from research laboratories. Empa subsidiary Perovskia Solar is currently building a production facility in western Switzerland for specialized thin-film solar cells installed in electronic devices. However, without a healthy ecosystem, it will be difficult for start-ups to grow and create jobs. If they’re lucky, they’ll be acquired by an American or Asian competitor.

While research continues in Switzerland and Europe, others are also benefiting. A spokesperson for Meyer Burger puts it this way: “Europe is still conducting cutting-edge research in solar energy. This costs tax money. “If there is no longer a solar industry in Europe, there will be no more in Switzerland.”

Source :Blick