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Solar power installations hit new highs

2024-12-24 13:35:30China Daily Editor : Li Yan ECNS App Download

A worker inspects solar photovoltaic panels in Huaibei, Anhui province, on Dec 16. (LI XIN/FOR CHINA DAILY)

China is on track to set a new record for solar power installations in 2024, driven by falling production costs and increased global interest in renewable energy, said industry experts and company executives.

With the world's largest, most complete new-energy industry chain, China is expected to install 230 to 260 gigawatts of solar capacity this year, topping the record of 217 GW set last year, according to the China Photovoltaic Industry Association.

This is mainly driven by lower module prices, a robust rooftop PV market and the commissioning of the country's energy megabases, which aim to develop large-scale wind and solar installations mainly in desert areas, it said.

Accelerated grid construction across the nation, which allows solar energy to be transmitted to demand centers further afield, has also helped push installations higher than previously thought, it added.

Despite ongoing challenges in the photovoltaic industry, including significant price reductions and reduced profit margins, demand for solar energy remains strong, both domestically and internationally, said Wang Bohua, honorary chairman of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association.

China's new photovoltaic installations reached 181 GW during the first 10 months, a 27 percent year-on-year increase, while the country's exports of solar cells and modules grew by more than 40 percent and 15 percent year-on-year respectively, he said during the 2024 annual conference of the photovoltaic industry held in Sichuan province earlier this month.

India, Turkiye and Cambodia are the top three export markets for batteries, with exports to India remaining at a high level. Europe remains the largest export market for modules, though its market share has significantly declined, said Wang.

Outside of Europe, South Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have relatively large market shares, indicating a notable trend toward diversification in module export markets, with other markets outside of the top 10 showing substantial growth, he said.

Wang Hongzhi, head of the National Energy Administration, said during the recently held national energy work conference that China has continued accelerating the construction of large-scale wind and solar power bases in the Gobi Desert and other arid regions in 2024 amid efforts to boost renewable power.

By the end of 2024, China has installed about 510 million kilowatts of wind power and 840 million kW of photovoltaic power, with the utilization rate remaining above 95 percent, driving rapid growth in both sectors, he said.

One of the drivers of China's rapid advancements in solar power development is a series of breakthroughs in solar cell technology, including the continuous improvement in the efficiency of crystalline silicon cells and the rise of emerging technologies like perovskite solar cells, which have enabled Chinese manufacturers to produce more energy-efficient panels at a lower cost.

Longi Green Energy Technology Co, the world's biggest PV panel maker, saw its Jiaxing production base included in the global lighthouse network by the World Economic Forum in 2023, the world's first lighthouse factory in the PV industry.

In the past three years, Longi has broken the cell efficiency record 18 times in a row. Today, the company holds two cell efficiency world records, 34.6 percent for crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells, and 27.30 percent for crystalline silicon heterojunction back contact solar cells.

BloombergNEF said earlier that it expected module prices to remain low at around 9 US cents per watt on the free market for the rest of 2024.Prices could hit new lows, staying around 8 to 9 US cents per watt throughout 2025 due to further cost reductions and efficiency improvements in TOPCon technology, it said.

An international team led by scientists from the Institute of Chemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed earlier this year a new type of high-efficiency solar cell capable of achieving a photoelectric conversion efficiency of 26.4 percent, the highest efficiency for such solar cells to date.

Perovskite-organic tandem solar cells can achieve higher efficiency than traditional crystalline silicon cells by combining the light-absorbing properties of perovskite with the flexibility of organic materials. They are also cheaper to produce and more versatile, with potential for use in a wider range of applications, said Li Yongfang, an academician and a researcher at the institute, who is involved with the development.

Tan Youru, a solar analyst at BloombergNEF, said China's photovoltaic industry is currently grappling with demand-side challenges, particularly issues related to capacity absorption, which are expected to slow long-term growth.

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