But China’s solar panel domestic industry is in upheaval. Wholesale prices plummeted by almost half in 2023 and have fallen another 25 per cent in 2024. Chinese manufacturers are competing for customers by cutting prices far below their costs, and still keep building more factories.
Many of China’s provinces are struggling to service their debts. Solar companies must also compete for government largesse with firms in other industries that are grappling with overcapacity as China’s economy slows. More than a fifth of Chinese industrial firms were unprofitable last year, according to analysis by Rhodium, another consultancy.
China’s solar panel domestic industry is in upheaval. PHOTO: NYTIMES CHANGSHA – Over the past 15 years, China has come to dominate the global market for solar energy. Nearly every solar panel on the planet is made by a Chinese company. Even the equipment to manufacture solar panels is made almost entirely in China.
Wholesale prices plummeted by almost half in 2023 and have fallen another 25 per cent in 2024. Chinese manufacturers are competing for customers by cutting prices far below their costs, and still keep building more factories. The price slashing has taken a severe toll on China’s solar companies.
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.
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.