China Solar 2014

China the leading solar hub have set new records in the last year, 2014. The country produced the largest quantities of solar products and achieved new efficiency and capacity levels in the last year. The country which houses the leading solar companies today globally, is now set to install another 15 GW by 2020. China has by far been the largest country to install 12 GW of solar power in one year, in 2012. The country is trying to reduce its carbon footprint and shift to the more cleaner and greener sources of power.

Source: Statista

Most of the leading solar companies turned profitable in the last year. They utilized almost 85% of their production capacities and many companies like Jinko Solar also have plans of further increasing capacity in 2015. These companies are planning to shift their production bases to South East Asian countries to avoid the anti-dumping duties. The solar companies like Jinko Solar, Canadian Solar and Trina Solar also announced creation of new yieldcos in the near future. These yieldcos enable the transfer of solar assets from the solar companies and in turn the companies turn more profitable. The best example of en existing yieldco is Terraform Power, formed in July 2014 by SunEdison.

The Chinese solar companies produced 132,000 tons of solar-grade polysilicon, 38GWp of solar-grade crystalline silicon wafers, 33GWp of crystalline silicon solar cells and 35GWp of PV modules in 2014, according to CCID Think Tank under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The demand for polysilicon saw an increase in 2014, with China importing additional 102,000 tons from countries like South Korea and Germany. This also led to a decline of polysilicon pricing in China to $15-16/ kg. The solar industry is seeing a revival. Other countries like India and USA are also planning huge targets in the years to come, while China will remain the manufacturing hub for the world with top ten leading solar companies having production bases in China.