TrendForce：For Solar Energy Average Conversion Efficiency, Government Policy Should Remain the Focal Point for the Future

According to EnergyTrend, a research division of TrendForce, InterSolar Europe 2013 officially edded this month on the 21th. Although market issues related to the anti-dumping and countervailing policy has been temporarily put to an end, the discussion focus among the business world during this year’s exhibition still be on the direction of government policies and products.

According to EnergyTrend’s understanding, Europe’s main systematic companies like Project Developer and EPC as well as other related companies, continue to firmly oppose the anti-dumping tariff being purposed by the EU. Related companies indicated that due to the decreased amount in subsidies, ROI are no longer as good as they once were. On top of that, future module prices continue to rise due to the influence of the anti-dumping investigation, which has affected company’s willingness to invest. If the conflict is not able to be resolved, companies like Solarstrom and Juwi have a grim outlook for future development in the European market. On the other hand, EnergyTrend’s observations state that non made-in-China modules have become the key point for most of the manufacturers in this year’s exhibition. Companies like Suntech Power, China Sunergy (CSUN), and BenQ Solar during the expo all came up with non made-in-China products. Some companies hope to increase market share for products in the European market, using propaganda to strengthen the characteristics of European production.

Aside from government policy, companies still focus on pursuing product efficiency. Besides traditional Si-Base products, TSMC Solar and Solar Frontier also revealed the top module products with a conversion efficiency surpassed 14%, showing their strong ambition. According to current data, products that surpass 14% have the hope to compete head to head with traditional products for cost. That being said, EnergyTrend is more concerned with what the current average conversion efficiency and capacity utilization rate are. When will the entire average efficiency be able to surpass 14%? These questions are of great concern for the future competitiveness for products, as well as the future development for companies. Aside from all this, due to Germany passing the subsidy bill for energy storage products, some companies have came up with corresponding solutions to comebine energy generation and energy storage, and the total solution became one of the focus during this year’s expo.