Around 90 Chinese manufacturers, which account for roughly 60 per cent of the EU market, are understood to have agreed to a minimum price of â¬0.56/w. The Commission also capped imports at 7GW/year, out of an expected market of 10-12GW/year.
If no deal were reached, the Commission was set to introduce a punitive import levy averaging 47 per cent on 6 August.
EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht said: “After weeks of intensive talks… I am satisfied with the offer of a price undertaking submitted by China’s solar panel exporters, as foreseen by the EU’s trade defence legislation. This is the amicable solution that both the EU and China were looking for.
“We are confident that this price undertaking will stabilise the European solar panel market and will remove the injury that the dumping practices have caused to the European industry. We have found an amicable solution that will result in a new equilibrium on the European solar panel market at a sustainable price level.”
However, the compromise satisfied neither the European solar manufacturing industry nor installers.
EU Prosun pledged to sue, saying the minimum price was set too low to address European manufacturers’ concerns about “dumping”. The manufacturers had expected a price closer to â¬0.80/w, based the provisional findings of the Commission’s investigation.
Milan Nitzschke, president of EU Prosun, said: “The agreement endangers the very existence of the European solar industry, which has already lost 15,000 jobs due to Chinese dumping and illegal Chinese state subsidies, and now is at risk of losing remaining producers in Europe.”
Meanwhile the Solar Trade Association, which represents UK installers, warned that fixing prices for two and half years, as proposed, would make some non-domestic projects uneconomic.
STA chief executive Paul Barwell said: “Thank God we’ve moved a long way from the original proposals, which were truly appalling and without justification. However, the deal reached by China and the EC still leaves the UK non-domestic solar industry in a very difficult position.”
The trade body urged the UK government to lobby for a shorter term fixed price or adjust solar subsidies to compensate for the higher costs.