Why did China complain about Italian Solar Domestic content rules to WTO after more than a year?
November 15, 2012Is India ready for Capital Account Convertibility?
November 15, 2012China Solar
China is set to become the 2nd largest solar energy market in the world in 2012 from being a fringe player in 2011. This is due to strong support being given by the Chinese Government to bolster its bleeding solar industry where stalwarts like LDK and Suntech are living on government life support. However despite the strong growth in China’s total solar capacity which surged to 2710 MW from 530 MW a year earlier, the solar panel industry has little to cheer. The reason is that the overcapacity is so huge that even 5 China’s cannot bring the solar supply demand into balance. The situation is being exacerbate by the continued support being given to bankrupt solar companies like LDK. This has resulted in most Chinese solar stocks being reduced to penny stocks. LDK Solar sold a 20% stake to a state owned company consortium for a pathetic $23 million. China is expecting a massive surge during the 4th quarter of 2012 which is expected to boost the solar capacity to 5 GW. However that is still not going to help the beleaguered solar industry which saw a 10-17% cut in prices during the 3rd quarter of 2012.
The last two years have been brutal for the solar panel industry, has a never ending oversupply & has led to thousands of bankruptcies around the world. The solar industry pain has been prolonged as insolvent solar companies like LDK, Suntech are kept propped up by the Chinese Government and its banks. These days there is no pretense of free market competition with the Xinyu local Government paying back an installment of LDK’s loans. Even GCL Poly which is the the lowest cost polysilicon manufacturer reported a loss and this is only expected to increase with spot poly prices going down by a further 5-10% to $18/kg. Note most polysilicon manufacturers produce poly at $25-30/kg which implies that the GM has now become a negative 30% for the producers at the current price level. The big daddies of the Chinese solar industry are being forced to slash jobs and production as they run out of money after two years of losses. The biggest solar panel producer Suntech is now reducing solar cell capacity and cutting 1500 jobs.
The photovoltaic (PV) power generation installation capacity connected to the China State Grid by the end of September was up 415 percent from the same period last year, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) said on Wednesday.The PV power generation capacity connected to the China State Grid, China’s largest power grid operator, stood at 2.71 million kilowatts at the end of September, about 2.18 million kilowatts higher than the same period last year, said Tan Rongyao, an SERC spokesperson, at a press conference.
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