(Bloomberg) -- Tens of thousands of unused solar panels are in European warehouses as the continent grapples with an unprecedented energy crisis.
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Rising electricity prices in the wake of Russia's aggression against Ukraine have led to a rapid transition to renewable electricity. The demand for solar energy from homes and businesses is increasing and the supply of panels is increasing to meet it. But a key piece of the puzzle is missing: There aren't enough engineers to install roof units fast enough to meet orders.
“Solar is infrastructure, and you can’t just move your finger and build infrastructure,” said Jenny Chase, senior solar analyst at BloombergNEF. Solar companies are "recognizing that they are not installing as fast as they buy".
Export data from the world's largest solar panel manufacturer shows it is lagging far behind. According to BloombergNEF, China's sales in Europe between January and July were $14.2 billion, or about 54 gigawatts. This is enough to power more than 16 million German homes and more than 41 gigawatts of BNEF is expected to be installed in the region this year.
Europe is still on track to have a record number of solar panels in 2022, but if all the people who order the panels get them, the number will be even higher, said Dris Ecke, director of the Solar Pressure Group. Power Europe is based in Brussels. .
"Installers in many countries are full over the next few weeks and months," Ak said. He said the panels now ordered for Belgium or Germany could not be installed until March.
The problem is that installing solar panels on the roof takes a lot of work. According to Daniel Teabing, an analyst at consultancy Wood Mackenzie Ltd, bottlenecks from a shortage of installation in the industry are more common than power plant expansion.
Holluz-Clidom SA, one of the largest roofing companies in Spain, has opened an academy to train workers to overcome labor shortages. A year ago, it took about 180 days for the roofing system to be installed, but the company has now reduced it to 45 days, CEO Carlotta By Amros said.
"The demand for solar energy in Spain is crazy," Bay Amros said in an interview. "Fall is coming and we are assuring our customers that they will have the solar panels before winter comes. This is a very strong selling point."
Suppliers
Currently, the main obstacle to the European solar industry is the shortage of manpower. But the pile of plates in Rotterdam, the continent's largest port, is also linked to logistics. Customs are reporting long delays, and a global shortage of computer chips means some boards lack the transformers used to process electricity.
“The supply chain is really bad right now,” said Martin Schachinger, managing director of German brokerage platform PVExchange Trading GmbH. "If this deficit slows sector growth, we will have no chance of meeting our climate goals in the coming years."
Chinese solar companies are preparing for profit risks in their largest market, the European Union, where sales doubled in the first half of the year. Jinko Solar's marketing director, Zener Miao, told investors last month that demand in some European countries is expected to decline in the second half of the year "due to issues affecting the supply chain."
In the long run, another threat emerges. EU lawmakers have proposed lifting the ban on asset freezes using forced labor and expanding it to third countries. For China's solar industry, this is an unwelcome echo of the United States' repression of products made in Xinjiang, the raw material hub for most of the country's solar energy production.
As fears of forced labor spread across Europe, the solar giants collapsed.
Allegations of abuses against the region's Muslim Uyghur population, which China rejects, further cemented ties between Beijing and Washington, cutting off supplies to units that are a key component of the Biden administration's planned energy transition.
The ban proposed by the European Commission, including Simon Lee, could still be approved, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley, and would take years before it takes effect anyway.
"The supply of solar energy to China has slowed down due to US labor policies," Li said in the statement. "The EU policy proposal opens up similar opportunities."
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