The market scale of global solar power generation is expected to grow rapidly to 51 billion US dollars by 2015 from 11 billion US dollars in 2005. The photovoltaic (PV) generation will take up 1% of the world electricity output by 2020 and amount to 25% by 2050. Therefore, the solar power generation industry in China enjoys a promising future.
There is great potential for solar power generation industry in China
Since the 1980s, it has been witnessed swift progress of solar energy industry. The Kyoto Protocol, effective since February 2005, has climaxed the utilization of renewable energy resources. The annual average growth rate of world PV generation in recent decade reached 30% and hit 40% in recent 5 years.
Up to now, more than 10 megawatt-level PV systems and 6 megawatt-level grid-interconnected PV power stations have been built up. The solar power generation in China just starts up. However, China is rich in solar energy resource and it has immense potential in exploitation and utilization. In over 2/3 areas of state territory, the annual sunshine duration are more than 2000 hours and the annual amount of solar radiation arrives at 5900 megajoule/m2. Thus, China boasts relatively better conditions for utilizing solar energy. According to the Middle and Long Term Program of Renewable Energy Development, we will strive for a solar power-generating capacity of 1.8GW (million kilowatts) by 2020 and 600GW (million kilowatts) by 2050. Based on the forecast from China Electric Power Research Institute, the installed capacity of renewable energy resource in China will be up to 25% of the total installed capacity by 2050, including 5% PV installed capacity.At present, a mere 65,000 kilowatts of solar energy was installed. In the next 15 years, the compound growth rate of solar energy installed capacity in China will hit 25% or more and the total investment in solar power generation will top 95 billion yuan.
Actively promoting the upstream business of industry chain
The PV industry in China has been driven to grow rapidly by the international market since 2003. The manufacturing technique and production scale of silicon ingot/silicon chip and solar cells have experienced continual improvement and the products have been sold to the international market. China has become a main manufacturer of PV products in the world.
However, PV industry in China is also confronted with a bottleneck. The industry chain of crystalline silicon solar cell consists of 5 links, namely silicon material, silicon chips, solar cell, solar module and application system. In this chain, the raw materials, technologies and equipments have been monopolized by developed foreign countries. Therefore, the domestic solar energy enterprises can only carry out the research and production of terminal equipments. The cost of crystalline silicon material, as the main materials for PV generation, takes up 40% or more of the total. The refining technology of silicon material in China is far behind that of the western developed countries, thus most of the raw materials required by the domestic solar cell manufacturers depend on import. However, China’s reserve of silicon resources account for a quarter of the world’s total. Presently the demand of polysilicon by electronic industry and PV industry in China is about 3000-5000 tons each year, among which 90% needs to be imported. Besides, with the development of PV industry, more and more companies join the manufacturing of crystalline silicon and set foot in solar generation. But the polysilicon supply is falling short of demand, which is expected to last until 2008-2010. The increasing price of polysilicon raises the production cost of enterprises and restricts the development of PV industry in China. In the long term, the national PV industry development can be guaranteed only by positively promoting the upstream business of the industry chain and strengthening the research capability of PV industry.
At present, the main enterprises of solar cell manufacturing ,including Suntech-power Co., Ltd., CEEG (Nanjing) PV-Tech Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Linyang Renewable Energy Co., Ltd., JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Topray Solar Co., Ltd. Except Shenzhen Topray Solar Co., Ltd. mainly deals with amorphous silicon solar cell , the rest companies specialize in crystalline silicon solar cells. Other domestic-listed companies engaged in solar generation include Tianwei Baobian Electric Co., Ltd., Shanghai Aerospace Automobile Electromechanical Co., Ltd., Linuo Solar Energy Group Co., Ltd., Hubei New Huaguang Information Materials Co., Ltd. and CSG Holding Co., Ltd. (share A) and Jinjing Science and Technology Stock Co., Ltd.,etc.
From: www.glass.com.cn