美国国家公共电台 NPR--Germany aims to revive its solar power industry which was booming a decade ago

Germany aims to revive its solar power industry which was booming a decade ago

Transcript¹

German solar panel manufacturers are working with lawmakers to rejuvenate² the industry in Europe. They are seeking to counter China's dominance of the industry with tax incentives³ and legislation.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Europe wants to make solar power its biggest energy source by the end of this decade, and that will mean tripling the amount of energy generated by solar in just seven years. Right now, the majority of solar panels are made in China. As NPR's Rob Schmitz reports, politicians and clean energy businesses in Europe are hoping to change that.

(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINE WHIRRING)

ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE⁴: Bright yellow robotic arms appear to be waving and then saluting⁵ as they pick up silicon⁶ solar cells and gently affix⁷ them to glass panels here at the Heckert Solar assembly floor in Chemnitz, a German city near the Czech border. Sascha Hahn watches quietly at the end of the line, arms crossed, as his colleagues place finished solar panels into boxes labeled, Made in Germany.

SASCHA HAHN: A day, we make 3,000. And we also say in a week, 20,000. Twenty thousand panels in one week, and it's still too less because the market want more.

SCHMITZ: The market wants more because in Germany, energy is suddenly hard to come by. Russia's invasion of Ukraine forced Germany to do away with its massive supply of imported Russian natural gas, and now it's again looking to alternatives like solar power. I say again because more than a decade ago, Germany's solar power industry was booming.

UWE KRAUTWURST: We were one of the market leader in 2012.

SCHMITZ: Uwe Krautwurst heads marketing⁸ for Heckert Solar. He says the golden age of Germany's solar power industry was the first decade of this century. That's when the government incentivized solar panels with feed-in tariffs⁹, paying solar panel owners back for contributing energy to the grid¹⁰. But in 2013, the government changed the law. That made renewables more expensive, and the industry collapsed¹¹. Seventy thousand people in Germany's solar industry lost their jobs, and Heckert found itself one of the only manufacturers left in this once-popular renewable energy park known as Saxony's Solar Valley.

KRAUTWURST: And so the industry moved from Germany to Asia.

SCHMITZ: Without government support, German solar panels were quickly replaced by ones made in China, which, since 2011, invested 10 times more in the industry than Europe did.

JOACHIM GOLDBECK: They had free research centers, governmental research centers on the side of the producers, subsidized energy - so many components¹² which made life - technical life easy in China.

SCHMITZ: Joachim Goldbeck, CEO of Goldbeck Solar, says starting around a decade ago, German companies watched as their Chinese rivals took over every step of the global solar power supply chain. Last year, China made 97% of the silicon wafers that go into solar panels, and more than three-quarters of the world's solar panels themselves.

GOLDBECK: The only way of going against that in Germany or in the U.S. or anywhere else would - basically someone developing a similar strategy.

SCHMITZ: That someone, says Goldbeck, is the Biden administration, which, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, put forth¹³ a range of incentives for solar panel producers and owners.

GOLDBECK: And I think now, with the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S., there is a strong will to do something similar to position this industry back in the U.S. And this clear statement is now lacking in Germany.

SCHMITZ: When he's not CEO of a solar company, Goldbeck serves as president of the German Solar Industry Association. He says German politicians talk about bringing back the country's solar industry, but they're not walking the walk with subsidies¹⁴ and tax credits, like China or the U.S. has. German member of parliament Katrin Uhlig begs to differ.

KATRIN UHLIG: We have an aim for at least 80% renewable energies in the electricity sector¹⁵ by 2030 now. So we are changing the environment for companies to invest in Europe.

SCHMITZ: Ten years ago, when the floor collapsed from Germany's solar industry and the conservative government of Angela Merkel instead prioritized natural gas from Russia, Uhlig was so frustrated¹⁶, she decided¹⁷ to run for office. She's now a member of Germany's Green Party, representing the western city of Bonn. She points to the European Union's Net-Zero Industry Act, which proposes that 40% of all solar panels installed in Europe be produced in Europe. She says Germany is working on similar measures.

UHLIG: If we had built more renewable energy sources, we wouldn't be, in general, as dependent on fossil fuels as we are now. But at the same time, you cannot change the past. So I'm looking forward.

SCHMITZ: Europe's solar industry is looking forward too. Gunter Erfurt is CEO of the Swiss company Meyer Burger, a leading solar panel manufacturer. He says Europe's Net-Zero Industry Act has not yet passed Parliament, and it may take a while to do so. But if it does, he says, it, alongside the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, could shift the global balance of clean technology away from China.

GUNTER ERFURT: Our industry requires massive scale in order to become super competitive also against Asian rivals and, in particular, Chinese companies. So I believe it could be a double strike if EU would also put packages together for temporary state aid, helping¹⁸ to put fertilizer on the industry to help it growing.

SCHMITZ: But Erfurt says the biggest challenge is time. It's taking the EU Parliament too long to pass a bill that would generate clean tech investment. That's part of the reason that Meyer Burger has decided to build its next big solar panel plant not in the EU but in Arizona to take advantage of tax credits in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.

Back on the solar panel assembly line in Chemnitz, Heckert Solar's Uwe Krautwurst is also hoping that both the EU and Germany act fast on helping resurrect his country's solar industry. He says an ongoing¹⁹ Chinese monopoly of the world's solar panels is dangerous.

KRAUTWURST: One danger is, for example, that you have no industry here and no further research and no further developments here in the European Union.

SCHMITZ: And that, he says, would be a sad ending for a country that helped spur growth in the solar power industry in the first place.

Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Chemnitz, Germany.

(SOUNDBITE OF JK BEATBOOK'S "SOFT LIGHT")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 rejuvenate   

v.(使)返老还童；(使)恢复活力

参考例句：

• The mountain air will rejuvenate you.山里的空气会使你恢复活力。
• Exercise is perhaps the most effective way to rejuvenate your skin.锻炼可能是使皮肤恢复活力的最好手段。

3 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 saluting   

v.欢迎，致敬( salute的现在分词 )；赞扬，赞颂

参考例句：

• 'Thank you kindly, sir,' replied Long John, again saluting. “万分感谢，先生。”高个子约翰说着又行了个礼。 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
• He approached the young woman and, without saluting, began at once to converse with her. 他走近那年青女郎，马上就和她攀谈起来了，连招呼都不打。 来自辞典例句

6 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

7 affix   

n.附件，附录 vt.附贴，盖(章)，签署

参考例句：

• Please affix your signature to the document. 请你在这个文件上签字。
• Complete the form and affix four tokens to its back. 填完该表，在背面贴上4张凭券。

8 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

9 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

10 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

11 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

12 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

13 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

14 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

16 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

18 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

19 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。