Not oil, coal or uranium are the biggest energy sources ever, but the sun. It shines eternally, environmentally friendly and for free. This is the fundamental difference between the conventional and the future energy supplies and therefore, the new “war over the sun” between China and the US is so important. It decides, more than anything else, about who will be the next super power. That’s why the US decided last weekend to impose duties on the import of solar cells from China.

The Obama government plans to impose surcharges between 31 and 250 % and thus accepts a trade war with China.

The US government had invested 100 billion dollars in the development of renewable energies. Energy turnaround is one of the main goals of President Obama. Yet, China has flooded the US market with dumping-prices for solar panels.

Experts say: it’s not the low wages in China which can be blamed for that – they only make 10 % of the price for solar panels -, but the many billion dollars of governmental subsidies which China directly distributes to the big Chinese solar companies like Yingli, Suntech Power or Trina Solar.

This is the only reason why China could achieve a world market share of 60% in the solar industry. Meanwhile, China is dominating the solar market in Germany as well.

At the same time, this development shows that the Chinese government has realised the unique strategic importance of solar energy for the future earlier than for example the German government which has just wanted to pass a phasing-out law for solar energy, which was voted down by the Federal Council, however.

In the past months, the German government has done anything possible to ruin the German solar industry - an almost unbelievable scandal.

So now we are facing a trade war between the US and China. The government of Beijing described the actions of the US as “unfair” and plans to file suit against it.

In the meantime though, Chinese solar groups took over the first European solar companies. The fight for the use of the sun has just begun. The Süddeutsche Zeitung writes that China wants to become a “superpower for green electricity”.

The US government has finally woken up. Maybe now the Berlin government will wake up as well and reconsider the solar phasing-out law presented by the ministers Röttgen and Rösler.

A big chance for the new German Minister for the Environment, Peter Altmaier. This will show if he’s in line with modern thinking and has really understood the challenge of China.

© Franz Alt 2012