China’s solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers are looking for solutions to years of price wars and losses at home amid excess capacity and waning demand as executives gathered in Shanghai to discuss the problems crippling the industry.
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They will get a chance to gauge the crisis as the financial hub plays host to the SNEC PV+ Photovoltaic Power Conference and Exhibition from Tuesday to Friday. The conference is the largest of its kind, attracting some 3,000 enterprises from more than 100 countries, according to its organisers.
“The solar PV industry isn’t a zero-sum game,” Zhu Gongshan, chairman of the Asian Photovoltaic Industry Association and one of the event organisers, said in his keynote address on Tuesday. “We are all in this together. Extreme cost-cutting and fierce competition are not different from drinking poison to quench thirst.”
The industry will need an antidote soon. Despite the glut, China installed about 278 gigawatts (GW) of solar PV capacity last year, or almost 60 per cent of global additions, according to data compiled by Ember. Excess capacity, compounded by China’s dual-carbon push and subsidies, have contributed to a 60 per cent slump in solar module prices between 2020 and 2024, according to S&P Global Ratings.
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The industry should focus on enhancing government-business collaboration to control supply through regulations or mergers, according to Zhu, who is the founder and chairman of GCL Technology. Market players should aim for technological innovation, enabling higher profit margins and sustainable growth, he added.
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“The future of solar photovoltaics is certainly bright, but the darkest moments come before dawn,” Zhu said in his keynote speech at the conference. “Instead of waiting for a cyclical recovery, we must confront the disruptive restructuring of the sector.”