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China Solar Industry 2023
After more than ten years of vigorous development, the solar industry of China has the advantages of the entire industrial chain and industrial scale, and has a dominant position in the international market. This has directly conflicted with the local trade protection and support policies of various countries for their own photovoltaic industries. Therefore, the photovoltaic industry has been frequently caught in trade frictions in the past decade.
(I) The periodic oversupply may lead to a reshuffle of the industry. Since the beginning of this year, photovoltaic leading companies led by Longi, JA Solar, JinkoSolar, Trina Solar, and Tongwei have announced expansion plans. The newly expanded production capacity is basically N-type production capacity with higher photoelectric conversion efficiency. Among them, the N-type TOPCon technology route is the main one, but there is also an N-type HJT (heterojunction) technology route.
Besides, the expansion of enterprises is conducive to the rapid iteration of new technologies and the reduction of production costs; on the other hand, the excess photovoltaic production capacity shortens the depreciation cycle of photovoltaic equipment, forcing enterprises to increase front-end R&D investment and continuously expand high-efficiency production capacity to meet market demand, thereby making relatively backward small and medium-sized photovoltaic enterprises face the risk of exiting the market.
(II) The photovoltaic manufacturing end faces a restructuring of the pattern. At present, my country's photovoltaic manufacturing end has three advantages: high industrial chain integrity, deep technical accumulation, and solid industrial foundation. In the short term, my country's international status in the photovoltaic industry chain is difficult to shake.
According to the European Commission's calculations, my country's total photovoltaic manufacturing cost is 35% lower than that in Europe, 20% lower than that in the United States and 10% lower than that in India. Taking photovoltaic module manufacturing as an example, my country's photovoltaic module products save more than 50% of the cost of photovoltaic module products produced in the United States and the European Union.
However, as the global photovoltaic pattern is accelerating its reconstruction, my country's photovoltaic industry should actively adjust its layout at home and abroad, especially in the auxiliary materials and auxiliary materials link, and accelerate the construction of production capacity in Southeast Asia, Europe, the United States, Latin America and other countries to cope with the increasingly frequent trade friction cases and consolidate and enhance my country's photovoltaic international influence and market share.
(III) The formulation of photovoltaic green trade standards needs to be accelerated. At present, some countries and regions represented by the United States and the European Union are preparing to follow the practices of France and South Korea to formulate new bidding rules such as carbon footprint certification for photovoltaic projects. At present, my country lacks a carbon label database, and foreign databases are not suitable for my country's national conditions.
The use of foreign databases will lead to deviations in my country's carbon accounting. Therefore, a carbon footprint accounting system applicable to my country's photovoltaic industry should be established as soon as possible, and international connection work should be done to promote international mutual recognition of accounting results. At the same time, my country's photovoltaic companies should actively respond to carbon footprint evaluation. Only through collaborative innovation across the entire industry chain can we promote green transformation and sustainable development in a more compliant manner.
