Solar cell makers in the European Union have called on the European Commission to probe alleged dumping practices by their Chinese rivals, as Beijing warned an investigation could trigger a trade war. EU ProSun, a group of more than 20 European solar companies, called on Brussels to “investigate unfair trade practices by Chinese manufacturers”. The group suspects China of providing its solar players with large loans and other subsidies that allow them to sell their solar cells at prices below their production cost. “Europe has the world’s most advanced and innovative solar industry, but we’ve fallen on hard times and are faced with bankruptcy filings because of these Chinese products sold at rates that are up to 55% below production cost,” EU ProSun President Milan Nitzschke said. Seven of the world’s leading manufacturers of solar modules are Chinese. China’s manufacturers have called the dumping allegations “groundless”. Four major firms in China warned that a EU anti-dumping investigation could trigger a trade war, adding the country is a big market for European products, including cars, aircraft, machines and luxury goods. “Any additional punitive tax will also contribute to the loss of thousands of jobs in the European solar industry,” Suntech Europe president Jerry Strokes said in July.

China  launched a probe into alleged U.S. dumping of solar products and government subsidies for the sector. The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) will investigate whether U.S. companies sold polysilicon used to produce solar batteries at artificially low prices in China. Products made in South Korea will also be included in the probe. In addition, China will look into alleged U.S. state subsidies for the sector, including tax exemptions, supplying land free of charge and granting public funds for job training. The probe, which is expected to last for at least a year, comes after the United States in May slapped hefty anti-dumping duties on Chinese solar cell makers, which Beijing blasted as “protectionist”. The price of U.S. polysilicon imports fell more than 67% year-on-year from January to May, squeezing many Chinese firms out of business, He Weiwen, Researcher at the China Association of International Trade, said. “Only eight out of the 43 polysilicon companies in China can barely sustain production. Others have almost all stopped operations, with one in the process of filing for bankruptcy,” he said. The European Commission launched a formal investigation in early September, which activated the largest trade dispute involving China in terms of trade volume. China’s solar product exports were worth USD35.8 billion in 2011. The EU receives a share of more than 60% of those exports, or USD20.4 billion. In May, the U.S. decided to impose tariffs on more than 31% of solar panels made in China, in addition to the fees ranging from 2.9% to 4.73% imposed in March. Suntech Power Holdings said that in order to cut production costs and operating expenses, it has temporarily shut down a portion of its solar cell production capacity at its Wuxi, Jiangsu province, headquarters. Rival Trina Solar said it will cut about 200 employees at the management level. New York-listed LDK Solar, which has seen losses recently, said it is going to cut 5,554 employees, accounting for 22% of its staff.

Swire Blue Ocean has taken delivery of the biggest ship in the world specifically built to install offshore wind farm equipment in a move that marks the firm’s entrance into the global offshore wind farm market. The firm is a subsidiary of Swire Pacific Offshore, which is part of the Swire Pacific Group that is also the major shareholder in Hong Kong flag carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways. The 161 meter vessel, which has been named the Pacific Orca, will further enhance Swire Pacific Offshore’s capabilities. Its main focus at present is providing tugs and support ships to oil and gas rigs. The Pacific Orca will be joined by a sister ship, the Pacific Osprey, to be delivered at the end of the year. Both ships, built by South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries, will be deployed to Europe, where most wind farm developments are taking place. They have six jack-up legs that can be lowered onto the seabed and push the vessel above the ocean surface. That allows the installation of wind farm equipment in water up to 60 meters deep. Pacific Orca will help build the West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm near Barrow-in-Furness on England’s northwest coast. The vessel will install 108 monopile foundations, each weighing 650 tons, and associated equipment for the project, which is being developed by Denmark’s Dong Energy and Scottish Power Renewables.

Rikke Stoltz, Business Development Manager and Director at Swire Blue Ocean, said the ship could carry up to five monopile foundations at a time. It also has the capacity to carry up to 12 turbines, comprising wind farm towers, generators and turbine blades, up to 3.6 MW in size. It takes about 24 hours to install each turbine or foundation, depending on the exact nature of the installation work and the weather conditions. Stoltz added that Swire Blue Ocean was likely to complete its involvement in the West of Duddon Sands project at the end of next year, and would later be joined by Pacific Osprey to help with the construction of the 400 MW DanTysk offshore wind farm 70 kilometers west of Sylt, an island in the North Sea, starting from the middle of next year. Stoltz said Pacific Osprey would also carry out decommissioning work in the oil and gas market, removing small platforms in the North Sea. Karsten Schulze, Senior Manager for Energy and Natural Resources at management consultant KPMG, said Britain and Germany were the biggest markets for offshore wind farm development. Up to 6,000 offshore wind turbines are forecast to be installed by 2030 if the German government’s expansion targets for wind energy are to be met. KPMG and the European Wind Energy Association said in a report there were up to 30 installation vessels available or under construction, the South China Morning Post reported.

China called on the European Union to halt trade protectionism after the opening of an anti-dumping investigation into Chinese solar products. China sold solar panels and components worth around €21 billion to the EU last year, its largest market. “Restricting China’s solar panel products will not only hurt the interests of both Chinese and European industry, it will also wreck the healthy development of the global solar and clean energy sector,” Ministry of Commerce Spokesman Shen Danyang said. He urged the EU to resolve trade frictions in solar photovoltaic products through negotiations. Miao Liansheng, Chairman and CEO of Hebei province-based Yingli, said that his firm will closely cooperate with the European Commission in order to prove that the conditions for imposition of punitive tariffs are not fulfilled. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Beijing she preferred a negotiated settlement to the dispute, frustrating Europe’s solar panel producers. SolarWorld’s alliance, EU Pro-Sun, says panel prices dropped by 75% from 2008 to 2011 as the Chinese ramped up capacity from almost zero in 2004 until it more than covered global demand for panels last year. It argues prices will still fall, albeit more steadily, if duties are set. However, some European solar companies say Europe should welcome Chinese imports because they make solar power more affordable and are essential to achieve the EU’s goal of having 20% of energy from renewables by 2020.

Houston-based Schlumberger, the world’s largest provider of oilfield services, has agreed to set up a joint venture with Anton Oilfield Services to tap a boom in unconventional energy. Schlumberger, which bought a 20.1% stake in its Beijing-based partner in July, would have a 60% stake in the venture and Anton the rest, Anton said in a statement. The planned total initial investment was USD12 million, Anton Vice President Peter Pi said. Anton is one of the largest oilfield services providers not owned by the state. The venture would combine Schlumberger’s global experience and advanced technology with Anton’s local knowledge and access to domestic talent and low-cost materials, Anton Chairman Luo Lin said. “A major focus of the joint venture will be on servicing the development of unconventional oil and gas resources,” he said. A major focus of global unconventional energy development is shale gas.  China is estimated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration to have the world’s largest shale gas resources, but owing to a lack of investment and technology, only a few dozen wells have been drilled, compared with thousands in the U.S. Beijing has set a target for shale gas output of 60 billion to 100 billion cubic meters (BCM) a year by 2020, compared with a negligible amount now. Reaching this target will require an estimated investment of USD100 billion, the Ministry of Land and Resources said.

Wind power producers in three northern regions of China were forced to waste CNY6.6 billion of electricity generated in this year’s first half due to chronic power grid capacity shortages, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) said. An average 16% of the three regions’ wind farm operators’ total output was not transmitted to the grid in the period, even worse than the 12.5% recorded in the first half of 2010. The three regions together accounted for 87.7% of China’s total wind power generating capacity. The average wastage rate was as high as 27% in Gansu province, 24% in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and 15% in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces in the northeast. They are among the top wind power producing regions. The commission blamed a lack of coordination between the pace of development of wind farms by developers and the government’s expansion of power grids, as well as lagging improvement in inter-region grid transmission capability as the main culprits for the problem that has been plaguing the nascent clean energy industry in the past few years. “Wind project construction cycles are short, while those of power grids are long,” said the report. The growth in wind power capacity in China slowed from 100% in 2009 to 73% in 2010 and 39% last year, due to shortages of transmission capacity, according to Global Wind Energy Council’s data. Monopoly power grid builder and operator State Grid Corporation of China had invested a total of CNY440 billion into grid connection infrastructure to wind farms by the end of last year.