The World Needs To Make Solar In More Places

IEA warns one-third of global PV manufacturing capacity is at medium or high risk of bankruptcy and the world needs more diverse solar panel supply chains to ensure a secure transition to net zero emissions

International Energy Agency, July 7, 2022

…Chinese industrial and innovation policies focused on expanding solar panel production and markets have helped solar PV become the most affordable electricity generation technology in many parts of the world…[but] this has also led to imbalances in solar PV supply chains, according to the IEA Special Report on Solar PV Global Supply Chains…Global manufacturing capacity for solar panels has increasingly moved out of Europe, Japan and the United States…

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China’s share in all the key manufacturing stages of solar panels exceeds 80% today…and for key elements including polysilicon and wafers, this is set to rise to more than 95% in the coming years, based on current manufacturing capacity under construction…[A]nnual additions of solar PV capacity to electricity systems around the world need to more than quadruple by 2030 to be on track with the IEA’s pathway to reaching net zero emissions by 2050. Global production capacity for the key building blocks of solar panels – polysilicon, ingots, wafers, cells and modules – would need to more than double by 2030 from today’s levels and existing production facilities would need to be modernised…

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Governments and other stakeholders around the world have begun to pay increasing attention to solar PV’s manufacturing supply chains as high commodity prices and supply chain bottlenecks have led to an increase of around 20% in solar panel prices over the last year…[N]ew solar PV manufacturing facilities along the global supply chain could attract USD 120 billion of investment by 2030. And the solar PV sector has the potential to double the number of PV manufacturing jobs to 1 million by 2030, with the most job-intensive areas in the manufacturing of modules and cells…” click here for more

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