Intersolar Europe: SolarWorld exits SolarPower Europe trade body

The industry body formerly known as EPIA had irked the German solar company with its opposition to EU trade duties, something SolarWorld had long lobbied for.

Share

SolarPower Europe – the rebranded European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) – waved goodbye to one of its chief agents provocateur on day one of the Intersolar Europe exhibition today as Germany’s SolarWorld withdrew its membership.

At a press conference held regarding the trade dispute, SolarWorld vice president Milan Nitzschke confirmed that the company parted ways with SolarPower Europe only this morning, stating: “For a solar manufacturer in Europe and the U.S., there was no way to stay in their organization.”

Nitzschke is president of the SolarWorld-founded anti-dumping lobbying trade group EU ProSun, which had been at loggerheads with first EPIA and more latterly SolarPower Europe over the trade dispute.

Nitzschke added that he was sad to have to make the decision, but moved to suggest that EU ProSun, which represents about 30 solar manufacturers in Europe, could serve as an alternative representative in the European PV industry.

For SolarPower Europe, the blow of SolarWorld’s exit was softened by the arrival of Baywa r.e., the German renewable energy developer, which was welcomed on board this morning.

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Popular content

Batteries set to drive rapid solar growth

25 December 2024 Chemical battery storage, led by lithium, has made such significant strides in terms of cost, capacity and technology that batteries are now positione...

Share

Ian Clover

Ian joined the pv magazine team in 2013 and specializes in power electronics (inverters) and battery storage. Ian also reported on the UK solar market, having worked as a print and web journalist in Britain for various multimedia companies, covering topics ranging from renewable energy and sustainability to real estate, sport and film.

More articles from Ian Clover

Related content

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.