China’s solar exports rose 60 per cent to US$28 billion last year, China dominates all sectors of solar panel production

beijingwalker · Feb 17, 2022

China’s solar exports rose 60 per cent to US$28 billion last year

Country’s annual output of polysilicon, silicon wafers, solar cells and PV modules also rose
Relatively rapid expansion in the renewables sector still to come in 2022: Xiamen University professor

Published: 7:30am, 17 Feb, 2022

A photovoltaic solar panels factory in Ningbo, in China’s Zhejiang province. Photo: Reuters

China’s export of solar photovoltaic (PV) products increased by about 60 per cent to US$28.4 billion dollars last year, the country’s ministry of industry and information technology said on Tuesday.

Its annual output of polysilicon, silicon wafers, solar cells and PV modules also rose, by 27.5 per cent to 505,000 tonnes, 40.6 per cent to 227 gigawatts (GW), 46.9 per cent to 198GW and 46.1 per cent to 182GW, respectively, year on year, the ministry said.

The ministry attributed the increased volume of exports to a rising demand for solar products globally, which was driven by the need to fight climate change everywhere.

The domestic PV industry has “rooted itself in carbon peaking and carbon neutrality progress, seized the opportunities for development and overcame the adverse effects of the ongoing pandemic, grim economic situations and international trade barriers”, the ministry said in a release posted on its website.

The sector might have kicked-off China’s 2021-2025 five-year development period on a high note, but the data follows closely announcements by governments in the United States and India that they will impose higher tariffs on imported solar products from China and other countries to boost their domestic production.

This month, US President Joe Biden announced he would extend tariffs imposed by former president, Donald Trump, on most solar panel and cell imports from China and other countries for four more years. He, however, exempted from tariffs the so-called bifacial solar panels, which are widely used in large-scale utility projects, in a nod to his efforts to combat climate change and boost clean energy.

Sustained efforts by the US to boost its domestic solar PV manufacturing have, however, failed to deliver, Oslo-based energy research consultancy Rystad Energy said in December. The country imported a total of 27.8GW of solar panels in 2021 estimated to be worth US$8.9 billion, up from 26.7GW a year earlier, Rystad said in a report.

Malaysia and Vietnam were the top two exporters of solar products to the US. China’s contribution, on the other hand, dropped to below 1 per cent from 57 per cent of all US imports in 2011, the Rystad report said.

Meanwhile, India will raise the tariffs on imported solar modules by 40 per cent and imported solar cells by 25 per cent in April, according to a government document issued last year aimed at cutting imports and boosting domestic manufacturing.

Such policy is expected to stimulate India’s import demand for solar cell modules in the short term. In the medium term, China’s PV companies could be hit, while the policies could also push Chinese companies to build new production capacities within India, Shanxi Securities said in a report on Sunday.

China, the world’s largest solar products producer, built a total of 53GW of solar capacity in 2021, the country’s National Energy Administration said last month. The country now has 108GW of rooftop solar, more than anywhere else in the world.

To support its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2060, a deadline proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, China aims to have renewable energy including solar and wind account for 80 per cent of its total energy mix by 2060, and solar and wind generation capacity to reach 1,200GW by 2030.

“We’ll still see relatively rapid expansion [in the renewables sector] in 2022,” said Lin Boqiang, dean of Xiamen University’s China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy. “The current shares of solar and wind are still very small, so renewable capacity expansion will remain a key focus in 2022.”