Solar cell expertise

Solar cell expertise

“While the United States and Europe are still struggling to resume production of renewable energy and help companies avoid bankruptcy, China is already far ahead.” U.S. “New York Times” March 7 article, once again focusing on China's rapid development of the solar energy industry. According to the article, the cost advantage of China's solar energy industry poses a serious challenge to the United States and Europe, more than a decade ago, the United States also dominated the solar energy industry technology, but only a few years between, Chinese companies have mastered the expertise, and now produces almost all of the world's solar panel production equipment.

China's solar industry exploded last year, installing more solar panels in one year than the United States has ever done combined. In addition, China has cut the wholesale price of solar panels by nearly half, and China's exports of finished solar panels have increased by 38 percent, with exports of key components nearly doubling.

Increased investment in renewable energy - particularly solar energy - is a key part of China's big bet on emerging technologies, which it hopes to use to boost economic growth in new industries such as solar. The focus on solar energy is also the latest move in a two-decade-long program by China to reduce its dependence on energy imports.

“The export of Chinese photovoltaic products has triggered an urgent response from the outside world.” A wave of bankruptcies has swept through Europe's solar industry in the face of competition from Chinese products, and the remaining companies are now disappearing, according to the New York Times. The Biden administration has launched a subsidy program in an attempt to reduce the cost of producing and installing solar panels in the country.

Nonetheless, the cost advantage of Chinese products remains difficult to counter. The article notes that an assessment by a European Commission research organization in January of this year showed that Chinese companies were able to produce solar panels at a cost of 16 to 18.9 cents per watt of electricity generated. That compares with costs of 24.3 to 30 cents per watt for European companies and about 28 cents for U.S. companies.

Particularly in terms of power costs, electricity is expensive in Europe, especially after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict led to Europe no longer purchasing natural gas from Russia. Land for building PV power plants in Europe is also more expensive.

While China's coal consumption emits a significant amount of greenhouse gases each year, its use of solar energy, benefiting from low-cost solar panels, has undercut the growth in greenhouse gas emissions, according to The New York Times.

Annual installations of solar panels have nearly quadrupled globally since 2018. “We wouldn't be seeing so many solar installations around the world if Chinese manufacturers hadn't reduced the cost of panels by more than 95 percent.” said Tu Jianjun, a Beijing-based researcher at Columbia University's Center for Global Energy Policy.

China produces almost all of the equipment used to make solar panels in the world and supplies almost all of the components needed for solar panels, from wafers to specialty glass.


发表评论

请注意,评论必须经过批准才能发布

此站点受 hCaptcha 保护,并且 hCaptcha 隐私政策服务条款适用。