China considers blocking exports of solar energy technologies. Response to chip block?
China is considering an export ban on solar cell-related technologies, which would help the country maintain its substantial dominance in solar power generation, even as other countries are looking to bolster their domestic industries, Bloomberg reports . .
China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology are seeking public comment on adding certain manufacturing methods critical to the production of advanced solar wafers to the list of banned export technologies. Wafers are ultra-thin squares of silicon that are assembled into solar panels, and China accounts for 97% of global production.
The move underscores the growing strategic importance governments are attaching to solar power generation, as this technology becomes the planet's primary source of new energy. Countries from the United States to India are trying to develop national supply chains to dent China's lead.
"Beijing and China's solar industry market leaders are undoubtedly concerned about the efforts of the United States, the European Union and India to develop domestic solar industries, so these recent technology export controls could be an answer," said Cosimo Ries, analyst of Trivium China. "Beijing is trying to slow down how quickly its competitors can develop their own supply chains."
The move is still in the public consultation stage and no decision has yet been made. However, it comes just months after the US passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes subsidies for clean-tech manufacturing and spurred a spate of new factory announcements. Furthermore, the move can be seen as a response to the US ban on technologies related to the production of computer chips.
And what about Europe, which has staked a lot on this sector for the famous decarbonisation? It risks finding itself either permanently dependent on Beijing, or having to develop expensive alternative technologies. However not optimal solutions.
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The article China considers blocking exports of solar energy technologies. Response to chip block? comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-cina-valuta-di-bloccare-le-esportazioni-di-tecnologie-per-energia-solare-risposta-al-blocco-dei-chip/ on Fri, 27 Jan 2023 14:01:46 +0000.