Solar panel production costs in China have plummeted by 42%. An absolute competitive advantage
Solar module manufacturing costs in China have plummeted 42% over the past year, giving Chinese manufacturers a huge cost advantage over U.S. and European solar equipment makers, Wood Mackenzie said in a report on Thursday.
Over the past 12 months, Chinese solar production costs have fallen to $0.15 per watt, suggesting the United States and Europe cannot currently compete with Asian manufacturing power, according to the consultancy's report energy.
“In solar module production capacity, China already holds 80% of the global production volume and this is reflected in a surge in domestic installations. This year, domestic solar installations will be double those of the US and EU combined,” WoodMac says in the report.
Solar energy installations in the United States and Europe are also on the rise, as are efforts to reduce dependence on Chinese products in the supply chain.
According to the US Solar Market Insight Q4 2023 report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, the US solar industry installed 6.5 gigawatts of direct current (GWDC) capacity in the third quarter of 2023, with a 35% increase over the previous year, following the implementation of federal clean energy policies. Thanks to this growth, the United States is expected to add a record 33 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity in 2023, the report showed last week.
The United States has imposed tariffs on imports of Chinese solar modules, which has meant that less than 0.1% of US module imports have come from China this year.
The EU is also considering some trade protection measures, but has faced resistance from the European solar energy sector which, without Chinese products, would not be competitive.
In a joint statement , 433 European solar companies and associations, led by SolarPower Europe, warned in late November that “trade measures would harm the EU solar sector to the detriment of the EU's green energy transition at a critical time.” So in the EU we continue to import from China, increasing the subjugation of the European economy.
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The article Production costs of solar panels in China have fallen by 42%. An absolute competitive advantage comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/i-costi-di-produzione-dei-pannelli-solari-in-cina-sono-crollati-del-42-un-vantaggio-competitivo-assoluto/ on Fri, 15 Dec 2023 07:00:31 +0000.