One of Europe’s biggest wind turbine makers, Germany-based Nordex, is calling for stricter EU regulations to exclude non-western equipment from the supply chain of new renewable projects, as the European industry remains concerned about China’s market dominance in the clean energy supply chain.
“We believe the western-origin principle should therefore apply to all new wind capacity connecting to European grids, not only publicly supported projects,” Nordex’s chief executive officer José Luis Blanco told the Financial Times in an interview published on Tuesday.
Since the previous energy crisis in 2022, Europe has been concerned about the Chinese dominance in major clean energy markets, including the supply chain of wind turbines and blades, solar panels and cells, batteries and electric vehicles (EVs).
As Europe boosts renewable energy capacity installations to reduce reliance on imported oil and gas and protect its energy security in the second energy crisis in four years, the concerns about the Chinese dominance have only grown.
Cyber security has also become a prominent feature in the clean energy sector in recent years and Nordex is concerned about Europe’s reliance on Chinese technology.
“It’s about supply chain independence and technology independence,” Blanco told FT.
“The key issue is not where servers are located, but who controls the software and access to the systems,” the executive added, as Nordex voiced concerns about allowing Chinese makers access to critical energy infrastructure in Europe.
The European Commission last month decided that solar, wind, and battery storage projects using inverters from so-called high-risk countries – China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea – will no longer receive EU funding.
The European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) hailed this decision as a “necessary first step to safeguard European energy security, and confirms that manufacturers from Europe and other Western countries already have sufficient production capacity to meet demand in every market segment – at competitive prices.”
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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