This allows the shipments to avoid trade barriers, like tariffs imposed on many Chinese imports by former US president Donald Trump. Several of China’s biggest solar panel manufacturers are building final assembly plants in the US to tap subsidies offered as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
BEIJING – China unleashed the full might of its solar energy industry in 2023. It installed more solar panels than the United States has in its history. It cut the wholesale price of panels it sells by nearly half. And its exports of fully assembled solar panels climbed 38 per cent, while its exports of key components almost doubled.
Regarding the installation, China is striving to lead that as well. The Renewable Energy Agency's updated report shows that solar PV installation increased from 72 GW in 2011 to more than 1 TW by the end of 2022 (IRENA, 2022b). China's share in production increased from 60 % in 2010 to almost 80 % in 2021.
Solar energy is the most common, cheapest, and most mature renewable energy technology. With solar photovoltaics taking over recently, an in-depth look into their supply chain shows a surprising dependency on the Chinese market from the raw materials to the assembled PVs.
Solar modules, which are fully assembled solar panels, accounted for 90% ($23.8 bn) of China’s total solar exports by value in the first half of 2023. Over the last 12 months, China exported 111 GW of solar modules to Europe, the same amount as the total installed PV capacity of the United States.
In fact, European and American machinery are three to four times higher than Chinese and South Asian ones (IEA, 2022a). All these factors allow China to provide cost-competitive manufacturing for all solar PV elements, especially since the material cost is unified.