The China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA) held its "2023 Photovoltaic Development Review and Outlook in 2024 Conference" in Beijing on 28 February 2024. At the conference, Wang Bohua, Honorary Chairman of CPIA, presented a detailed review of the photovoltaic industry in 2023 and gave CPIA's outlook on the development situation of the photovoltaic industry in 2024.
In general, it is very pleasing to see that the production of polysilicon, silicon wafers, solar cells and modules in China reached more than 64% year-on-year growth in 2023. And the newly installed solar power capacity reached 216.88GW, an increase of 148% year on year. The export volume of silicon wafers, solar cells and modules increased by 93.6%, 65.5% and 37.9%, respectively, year on year.
On the other hand, the prices of solar products fell sharply in 2023. For example, the winning bid price of solar modules fell by more than 40% at the end of 2023 compared to the beginning of the year, falling below RMB1.00/W. Meanwhile, the growth rate of the output value of PV manufacturing slowed down. The output value of PV manufacturing excluding inverters exceeded 1.75 trillion yuan in 2023, up 17% year on year, the growth rate in 2022 was 100% year on year. In addition, the export value decreased with a year-on-year decline of 5.4%, was $48.48 billion in 2023, compared with $51.2 billion in 2022.
However, the export market of China's PV products was diversified in 2023. Europe maintained its leading position, accounting for about 42% of China's total export value, while Asia increased from 36% to 40%. At the same time, the number of export markets with an export value of more than $100 million increased by seven, and the number of export markets with an export value of more than $500 million increased by four. The Netherlands, Brazil, Spain and India are the top four, and Belgium, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are new to the top ten.
China's new PV installations for 2024 are expected to remain high but with a slow growth rate. Under the optimistic scenario, new installations will reach 220GW, a 2% increase year-on-year. Under the conservative scenario, there will be 190GW of newly added capacity, a 12% decrease.
（Picture: Veer）
