After one of the world's biggest solar panel makers, Q-Cells, filed for insolvency, is the solar energy market still viable? EPTV investigates in Belgium and Germany.

Reporter: Is the future still bright for solar energy?

After incredible growth in 2007 and 2008,

green technologies  are clearly suffering today.

Are wind and solar power  and other sources of renewable energy

EuroparlTV investigates in Belgium  and Germany, a solar energy pioneer.

Paul Van Damme, a Belgian  living in Wallonia, was very shrewd.

In November 2011, he signed up  for solar panels to be installed in his garden.

he benefited from a 40% reduction on the  total price - something not available today.

Would we have done it  without the 40% tax deductions?

It's highly unlikely. But in the beginning,  I didn't have all the information

The panels should pay for themselves  in less than five or six years.

To achieve this, Paul received advice  from a solar panel distribution company.

Its head explains  that the reduction in public funding

is paradoxically positive for the sector.

The question of subsidised markets  is always complicated, always difficult.

You are always at the mercy of a political  decision and the direction it takes.

Today, politicians can take whatever  decisions they like, we're no longer affected.

Today we are in the situation  where, with the tax breaks,

the return on the investment  took four years,

For the solar panel fitter it's the same story:  public support is no longer needed.

The prices in the last five years  have been practically halved

for the finished product:  installation and material.

Prices are continually falling: Attractive for  consumers but less so for manufacturers.

Here in Solar Valley in eastern Germany  many factories produce solar panels.

For two or three years,  the industry has been undermined

by the Chinese competition  that is flooding the European market.

To a large extent, the Chinese  control the prices here in Germany.

If the subsidy for solar installations  is withdrawn, prices will go down,

so there will always be  a financial return for the clients.

But for production companies such as ours  this reduction in prices is too rapid.

It is impossible to develop  new products in half a year.

Germany has also recently reduced  state aids and other benefits.

This investor, specialised in green energies,  fears the sector will collapse.

will have a paralysing effect  on the whole industry.

For Germany this means  that out of the 130,000 jobs

Back in Belgium, this company  also produces solar panels.

Its aim is not to produce  thousands of panels

but to integrate them  into architecture.

The firm has been profitable  for several years.

We're creating a façade  for a 10-storey building in Bordeaux

These are very high-tech projects  with high added value

and the work  is taking place here in Belgium.

We're not competing on the standard  panel market to create solar fields.

We're trying to put intelligence  and value into what we do.

According to this Wallonian director  of Cluster Tweed,

a body bringing together  some 100 green enterprises,

the renewable sector is still conducive  to investment and employment.

Renewable energy is obviously an excellent  way to create local employment.

This is one of Cluster Tweed's goals:  to allow industry to develop locally.

Solar energy is one of the ways to reach  the EU's 2020 environmental objectives.

MEPs want to compel the 27 EU states  to adopt compulsory measures.

There's no doubt the measures  could boost the renewables market.