Recently, according to Photovoltaic Magazine, an international authoritative journal of the new energy industry, the European Union is currently drafting a proposal that by 2030, the EU's solar module production capacity will be sufficient to meet more than 40% of the expected market demand of the "REPowerEU" energy plan and the Green Agreement Initiative. This includes the planned installation of 600 GW of PV systems.
The European Photovoltaic Manufacturing Committee (ESMC) believes that more than 75% of the demand for photovoltaic modules in Europe should be met by local producers, which means that 35 GW of photovoltaic modules will be produced in Europe by 2025, 60 GW by 2026 and 100 GW by 2030.
This has brought new challenges to China's photovoltaic export enterprises with Europe as their main export market. Half of
China's photovoltaic exports have gone to Europe
in recent years, especially since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as an important pillar of clean energy transformation, the demand for solar photovoltaic power generation has witnessed explosive growth in Europe. According to the preliminary statistics of the European Photovoltaic Association, the new photovoltaic installed capacity in the 27 EU countries increased by 47% year-on-year in 2022, more than twice that in 2020.
In this context, the business expansion of Chinese photovoltaic enterprises in the European market has also increased by leaps and bounds.
According to the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, in 2022, the total export volume of photovoltaic wafers, cells, modules and other products in China broke through three "10 billion" barriers, reaching 51.25 billion US dollars, up more than 80% from 28.4 billion US dollars in 2021. According to
the data of China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Mechanical and Electrical Products, the foreign trade of photovoltaic industry will experience blowout growth in 2022, with the export volume of components of about 154.5G W, an increase of nearly 53.8% over the previous year, and the export volume of 41.2 billion US dollars, an increase of 65.3% over the previous year. It can be seen from this that modules account for the vast majority of China's photovoltaic exports. In the past
ten years, the cumulative export volume of photovoltaic modules in China has exceeded 200 billion US dollars, and the cumulative export volume of modules has exceeded 575 GW.
In addition, in 2022, China's export volume and export volume of photovoltaic modules reached a record high, and Europe was the main export market, accounting for about 55% of the export volume of photovoltaic modules, an increase of 10.9 percentage points over the previous year.
Europe and the United States are vigorously expanding production to promote the "localization"
of photovoltaic manufacturing. While European and American countries are vigorously developing photovoltaic projects and the demand for photovoltaic industry is soaring, European and American countries are also actively promoting the localization of photovoltaic manufacturing industry.
In addition to the latest EU proposal, at the end of last year, the European Commission formally established the European Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance to promote investment in EU solar manufacturing.
The new alliance will mobilize resources for European solar photovoltaic manufacturing projects, make full use of all existing and new production capacity, expand European local production capacity, and make the European photovoltaic industry chain links (polycrystalline silicon ingots, wafers, batteries, components) reach 30GW in 2025. It will meet 75% of the annual demand for photovoltaic modules in Europe. The 30GW target is equivalent to more than six times the current annual output of about 4.5G W.
EU internal market officials said that at present, the EU relies almost entirely on China in photovoltaic manufacturing. China currently controls 80% of the world's solar photovoltaic manufacturing capacity, and its global market share in polysilicon and silicon ingots will soon reach nearly 95%.
As one of the major photovoltaic markets in the world, the United States is also effectively driving the development of domestic photovoltaic industry through financial incentives, management policies, financial subsidies and local trade protection in recent years.
In 2022, the United States enacted the Inflation Reduction Act, which will invest about $369 billion in energy security and climate change, and will support related industrial enterprises and technology research and development through grants.
In addition, FuturaSun, an Italian solar panel manufacturer, acquired land in an industrial area near Padua, Italy, for a new 2G W solar module factory. Carbon,
a French manufacturer, is promoting the construction of TOPCon and IBC solar module factories, which will have an annual capacity of 5G W for solar cells and 3.5G W for photovoltaic modules.
German manufacturer AE Solar plans to build a module manufacturing plant in Romania with an annual capacity of 10g W.
Generalitat Valenciana (GVA) intends to grant a Silicon Valen SL to a local company to build a solar PV module factory in Spain. China's photovoltaic enterprises have grasped the absolute advantage
of
photovoltaic going to sea + building factories overseas. At present, the position of China's photovoltaic industry in the world is hard to shake in a short time. After all, China's photovoltaic industry has maintained an absolute advantage in the world market because of its perfect industrial chain, world-leading product preparation technology, high-quality product performance and excellent cost control.
It is understood that the cost of photovoltaic products in China is 10% lower than that in India, 20% lower than that in the United States and 35% lower than that in Europe. Low-cost electricity is key to the competitiveness of the main pillar of the solar PV supply chain. Electricity accounts for more than 40% of polysilicon production costs and nearly 20% in ingots and wafers.
In addition to maintaining a sustained lead in exports, many Chinese photovoltaic enterprises have long begun to live in peace and think of danger, forward-looking layout of overseas factories.
Just this month, Longji Green Energy, China's leading photovoltaic company, announced that it would cooperate with Invenergy, an American clean energy developer, to build a 5G W photovoltaic module factory in Ohio, USA. In January
2023, Jingao Solar Energy Technology Company leased land in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, and planned to invest $60 million to build its first factory in the United States.
In addition, in 2018, JinkoSolar has promoted the establishment of a 400 MW photovoltaic module assembly plant in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.
Data show that in 2021, the share of the top three companies in the U.S. component industry (CR3) is about 45%, of which First Solar, Longji Green Energy and Jingke Energy rank the top three, accounting for 23%, 11% and 11% respectively. It is not a new thing for Chinese photovoltaic enterprises to build factories
in Europe and Southeast Asian countries.
Understandably, the localization of photovoltaic manufacturing in Europe and the United States has no immediate worries for Chinese enterprises at present, but in the long run, it still needs long-term consideration.
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