It's a different kind of dependence. Sure you need China for this particular panel you're buying now but from then on you are no longer dependent on them.

Compare that to oil and gas which has to continually be shipped. And no one says that we won't figure out how to produce these things ourselves one day.

Exactly. This is such a goofy idea, that you can buy something from China and use it in the EU and suddenly you’re “energy independent”. No, you’re China dependent. I guess the argument would be that solar panels last a long time and thus you’ve bought yourselves 20 years or whatever the life span is, of energy independence from China? But you’ll need new batteries sooner than that.