The sky is falling? Big Photovoltaic Factories Fall One After Another, What's Wrong with the Market?

According to foreign media reports, on July 1, French solar installer France Solar has changed from bankruptcy proceedings to liquidation proceedings . The company went into receivership on April 28 after failing to find a buyer .

, however, the good times will not last long until July 2024." France Solar launched a massive layoff of nearly 150 people (274 jobs). In response, the company explained that the main factors leading to the company's business difficulties were the intensified competition in the housing market and the decline in household investment capacity caused by inflation.

In fact, not only the downstream enterprises in the European photovoltaic industry chain are mired in bankruptcy, but also the upstream enterprises are already suffering. According to the incomplete statistics of the Digital New Energy DataBM. Com, there are more than 20 https://www.databm. in the photovoltaic manufacturing industry in Europe.

Specifically, there are 3 photovoltaic enterprises involved in the silicon material link, and 2 enterprises involved in the silicon wafer ; There are 4 companies involving batteries and 10 companies involving components ; One company is involved in auxiliary materials ; two companies are involved in equipment .

was once the largest in Europe June at subsidiaries in the US and Germany ; The only remaining Swiss headquarters company filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States on June 26.(Read more here: In fact, since January this year, GMB Due to the sharp decline in product demand, the short-term working system has been implemented for several months, with a monthly loss of 900000 euros (about 7.48 million yuan). Although there are also companies such as Saint-Gobain and Pilkington in Europe involved in the field of photovoltaic glass, most of them are auxiliary businesses or rely on imported raw materials . It has not formed large-scale local production capacity.

Therefore, the bankruptcy of GMB means that almost all the glass needed by European photovoltaic companies will be imported in the future. In

addition, among the two equipment enterprises, Israel capacity ;"; There are only 3 silicon ingot enterprises left , with a total capacity of 2.5 GW ; Silicon wafer enterprises 6 , capacity 2.7GW； There are 16 battery enterprises. Capacity 6.

why is the European PV industry chain so fragile?"? There are many European member States with different situations, and there is a lack of implementation of policies . For example, the top-level policy of the European Union will be divided when it is implemented by its member States , and the landing time will be too long. Although Europe wants to rely on policies to stimulate the local manufacturing industry, especially the photovoltaic industry, in recent years, many photovoltaic enterprises have gone bankrupt before the policy can be implemented.

Secondly , the high cost of electricity. One third of the cost of enterprises such as silicon materials and silicon wafers comes from electricity consumption. The reason for the high price of electricity comes from the burden of various taxes and fees. Taking Germany as an example, the cost of power generation accounts for only 35% of the electricity price composition, while the remaining 65% is various taxes and fees , such as renewable energy surcharges , which directly pushes up the production costs of local enterprises.

On the other hand , electricity prices in many European countries fluctuate significantly, reaching nearly 30 times the normal level at peak prices . This fluctuation further aggravates the burden of electricity consumption cost of enterprises.

In addition, the supply of raw materials depends on imports, the high cost of labor, the insufficient investment in research and development of photovoltaic technology, and the relatively incomplete supporting photovoltaic manufacturing industry chain. It weakens the overall competitiveness of European photovoltaic enterprises, and is unable to withstand the impact of products from all over the world, thus accelerating the bankruptcy and withdrawal of enterprises.

First, European governments are willing to spend real money to support local industries." 。 The EU has a number of funds, such as the "Recovery and Resilience Fund", "Innovation Fund" and "Horizon Europe" , to provide direct grants to photovoltaic enterprises. At the same time, governments will also give financial support, low-interest loans, tax incentives and so on to photovoltaic enterprises.

Secondly, in the construction of industrial localization, the European Commission launched the "European Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance" in December 2022. It aims to ensure the realization of 30GW photovoltaic local manufacturing capacity by 2025.

At the same time, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament also reached an interim agreement on the Net Zero Industrial Act. The agreement calls for 30% of the capacity of renewable energy projects to be tendered from 2026 to use locally manufactured components and batteries , and by 2030 . The proportion of local manufacturing should reach 40% .In

addition, in terms of target setting, the EU Solar Energy Strategy, which is part of the RE Power EU plan, sets a target of 600 GW of solar photovoltaic capacity by 2030 .

From this point of view, European governments intend to promote the expansion of local photovoltaic capacity, but from the actual effect, it does have little effect. In the short term, it is difficult for Europe to change its dependence on imports of photovoltaic products.