According to the latest research of EnergyTrend, a division of TrendForce, Chinese domestic solar market has been shirking after the release of new PV policy. Faced with the oversupply, Chinese module makers will seek ways to export the excessive products, or even sell off the products to overseas markets. Therefore, the global solar industry has paid intense attention to the price trends of modules and when EPC companies would place orders.
A notification released on May 31st 2018 by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Ministry of Finance, and National Energy Administration (NEA) provides new regulation for PV industry in China, which may influence various types of PV projects. EnergyTrend, a division of TrendForce, estimates that the new regulation will likely slash the domestic PV demand in China to 29~35GW. Consequently, the demand in global PV industry will see negative growth for the first time, decreasing to less than 100GW. The new policy imposes considerable pressure to the supply chain, and the prices have begun to drop.
The bidding for China’s 2017 Application Top Runner Program (3rd phase) has come to an end. According to the analysis of EnergyTrend, a division of TrendForce, mono-Si products take considerable share in all the projects, while the share of bifacial products also exceeds 50%. The bid winning projects are expected to lead the technological development of solar PV industry and to drive the market demand.
According to the latest data from EnergyTrend, a division of TrendForce, cobalt prices continued to rise in 2018 and soared by more than 20% in the first quarter. The rise of raw material prices results from short-term capital speculation and high supplier concentration. This concentrated industry structure may continue to push up the prices in long term. The soaring costs of raw material will be reflected in prices of lithium batteries and new energy vehicles quarter by quarter. This is also a challenge for the battery industry, which has been figuring out ways to reduce the dependence on cobalt.
The Taiwan government has devised the “Two-year solar power promotion plan” with the aim to increase 1.52 GW (1,520MW) of grid-connected capacity between July 2016 and June 2018. However, EnergyTrend, a division of TrendForce, expects that total grid-connected capacity would be 1,072MW by the end of plan, which means only 71% of the original goal would be achieved.
