China's PV (photovoltaic) exports rose 60% to $28.4 billion in 2021

[beijingwalker]

China's PV (photovoltaic) exports rose 60% to $28.4 billion in 2021
16:47, 20-Feb-2022

China saw strong exports in photovoltaic products (PV) last year as the world picked up efforts to cope with climate challenges.

In 2021, the country's PV exports surpassed $28.4 billion, growing about 60 percent from $18.23 billion a year before, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.

With a generally stable PV industry chain and supply chain, the country's annual output of polysilicon, silicon wafers, solar cells and PV modules also rose by 27.5 percent to 505,000 tonnes, 40.6 percent to 227 gigawatts (GW), 46.9 percent to 198 GW and 46.1 percent to 182 GW, respectively, year on year, the ministry said.

China, the world's largest solar products producer, also produced 53 GW of solar capacity in 2021, according to the National Energy Administration. The country now has 108 GW of rooftop solar, more than anywhere else in the world.

To support its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2060, China aims to have renewable energy, including solar and wind, account for 80 percent of its total energy mix by 2060, and its solar and wind generation capacity reach 1,200 GW by 2030.

Lin Boqiang, dean of Xiamen University's China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy, said that relatively rapid expansion in the renewable energy sector in 2022 is expected. Since the current shares of solar and wind are still very small, he predicted that renewable capacity expansion will remain a key focus in 2022.

China's PV exports rose 60% to $28.4b in 2021

China saw strong exports in photovoltaic products (PV) last year as the world picked up efforts to cope with climate challenges.

news.cgtn.com

 

[Dai Toruko]

An important event that helped Chinese companies was the spike in silicon prices a little over 10 years ago. Japanese and western companies invested billions into thin film solar cells (which use less silicon), while China kept using the "old" and more expensive technology. When silicon suppliers increased their production, silicon prices suddenly dropped making Chinese solar panels a lot cheaper. Japanese manufacturers wasted precious resources into a technology that wasn't needed anymore and couldn't afford investing more into expanding production capacity. The rest is history.

 

[Wergeland]

China is the provider of the world.
Without China the world would not have the massive rise in living standards past 30 years.

Cheap goods made it affordable to live a life in luxury for the middle class western man. It made it affordable for the poorest of the poor, all over the world, to have neccesary material needs covered.

China changed the world. Deng Xiao Ping was the greatest man of the 20th century. No doubt. His policies lifted billions of people out of proverty all over the world.