In response to a brand new report from Wooden Mackenzie, China will maintain greater than 80% of the world’s photo voltaic polysilicon, wafer, cell and module manufacturing capability from 2023 to 2026 following investments exceeding $130 billion this yr alone.
“China’s photo voltaic manufacturing enlargement has been pushed by excessive margins for polysilicon, expertise upgrades and for creating native manufacturing in abroad markets,” says Huaiyan Solar, a senior advisor at Wooden Mackenzie and writer of the report.
“China will nonetheless dominate the worldwide photo voltaic provide chain and proceed to widen the expertise and price hole with rivals.”
Greater than 1 TW of wafer, cell and module capability is forecasted to come back on-line by 2024, that means China’s capability is ample to fulfill annual international demand now by means of to 2032, based mostly on Wooden Mackenzie forecasts of annual demand progress.
Robust authorities insurance policies in abroad markets have began to extend native photo voltaic manufacturing, however they’re nonetheless not cost-competitive in comparison with Chinese language provide. A module made in China is 50% cheaper than that produced in Europe and 65% cheaper than the U.S., based on the report.
The U.S. and India have introduced greater than 200 GW of deliberate module capability since 2022, pushed by the Inflation Discount Act within the U.S. and the Manufacturing Linked Incentive in India.
“Regardless of appreciable module enlargement plans, abroad markets nonetheless can not remove their dependence on China for wafers and cells within the subsequent three years,” Solar says.
China will proceed to be the worldwide technological chief with its bulletins to construct greater than 1 TW of N-type cell capability, the next-generation expertise after P-type. This represents 17 occasions extra capability than the remainder of the world.
Wanting outdoors China, India is forecasted to overhaul Southeast Asia because the second-largest module manufacturing area by 2025, which can be pushed by India’s sturdy PLI incentives.
Considerations concerning the market’s oversupply are primarily aimed toward outdated manufacturing strains that produce decrease effectivity merchandise, such because the P-type and M6 cells. Demand for P-type cells started to say no in 2023, and Wooden Mackenzie analysts count on it to be solely 17% of provide by 2026.
“Oversupply will undeniably hinder a number of the present enlargement plans,” Solar provides. “Greater than 70 GW of capability in China has been terminated or suspended previously three months.”