China is facing, like many other countries worldwide, an energy crisis. Since September, high coal costs and inflexible electricity prices have caused shortages that forced local governments to implement rolling blackouts for energy-intensive industries. However, China’s ruling party has ordered power companies to secure winter power at any cost.
While over half a trillion dollars was spent worldwide on wind and solar last year, China accounted for 55% of that. Back in 2020, President Xi Jinping said that China would install over 1,200 gigawatts of solar and wind power by 2030. This new report says this target will be surpassed five years ahead of schedule.
Photo: Reuters But the panel makers have added capacity at a faster pace with the result that despite the country’s record-breaking installation of solar energy under its 2060 carbon neutral target, China’s solar panel sector is grappling with overcapacity.
While power supply is currently at the forefront of all issues globally, including in China, Floyd insists: “We have kind of reached what we sold really, to a certain extent, because the reliance on one country for so much of that product was always going to be a dangerous situation. “Global supply chains have always been extremely fragile.
China’s forecast capital expenditure is set to rise from about $102bn this year to $157bn by 2030, according to data from research group Rystad Energy. Despite China’s huge spending programme, there are signs of increasing pressure on the distribution and transmission of electricity.
China’s solar photovoltaic (PV) industry’s protracted battle with overcapacity may be drawing to a close, after years of bruising price wars and rapid capacity build-up plunged half the sector into the red, forcing closures and disrupting expansion plans, analysts say.