China's solar photovoltaic industry is about to enter the golden period

Two Chinese companies announced this week that they will soon begin construction of a 1GW solar photovoltaic power station, and large-scale solar energy applications will take another step forward. The solar farm in Datong, China, will be the world’s largest solar farm to date. China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group Solar Energy Development Co., Ltd. (a branch of China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group) and Hong Kong polysilicon supplier GCL-Poly Energy will co-finance.

This power station is not the largest power station ever announced, but it will be the largest after it is completed. (The first solar energy announced in 2009 that 2GW solar photovoltaic power station was built in Inner Mongolia, which was also funded by China General Nuclear Power. However, the project was delayed and may become a demonstration plant with only 30MW.) GCL said that the plant represents one of China's photovoltaics. "Gold development period" achieves 15GW by 2015 and 50GW by 2020.

The announcement of this gigawatt solar power plant project is undoubtedly an important development in China's photovoltaic market. The introduction of feed-in tariffs in August is prompting China to fully develop the solar industry, not just silicon wafers and components suppliers.

Suntech, the world’s largest solar photovoltaic manufacturer, said that in the first quarter of this year, the company’s market share in China’s domestic market was still zero, and now it has grown to 22%. Yingli also stated that the Chinese market in the previous fiscal year accounted for only 4% of its sales volume, and that it had soared to 40% in the third quarter of this year. Another Chinese supplier, Trina Solar, also stated that its market in China has grown from 0 in the first quarter to 7% in the third quarter. The United States market jumped to 21%, while Germany fell by half, accounting for only 32% of its sales.

Tim Buckley, general manager of Arkx who has invested in solar energy in China, said that Germany and Italy have supported the global solar market in the past few years and may now fade. The four major economies - China, Japan, India and the United States - are presenting Upward trend. "The advantage of them is the late start, low cost, and low consumer resistance." Component costs have fallen by 25% to 30% over the past few years and are expected to decline further.

Barkley predicts that the global PV market will rise to 25GW in 2012 (21GW in 2011 and 7GW in 2009). He also predicted that the Chinese market will increase by 1.5 GW in 2011, reaching 2 GW, which is nearly double the market forecast. This will make China the world’s fourth largest solar installation country in 2011, ranking behind Germany (5 GW), Italy (5 GW), and the United States (2.1 GW), ahead of Japan (1.5 GW) that redeveloped solar energy after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. . Industry analyst firm NDP Solarbuzz also predicts that China may surpass the US market for the first time in 2011 and may offset the decline in Europe together with India. Barkley said that China's 2012 installation rate will reach 4GW, and then it will remain between 5-10GW per year. This means that China will reach at least 26GW by 2015 and 75-100GW by 2020. He pointed out that China produces more than 50% of the world's solar PV modules, but it was still 95% of its exports in the last quarter. This situation will change.

Barkley also pointed out that China is very happy to see the jobs created by green energy. In China, Trina Solar employs approximately 15,000 employees and GCL employs approximately 29,000 employees. This did not happen for companies 6 years ago. In fact, the report released by the China International Environmental Cooperation Committee last week predicted that if green energy continues to be implemented, China will create nearly 95,000 jobs in the next five years.