In terms of installed capacity China, the US, and India are the three largest markets in the overall PV market. China has been the world’s number one market since 2013 and has had an intuitive impact on market stability and price volatility. The US has been the second-largest market in the world. In addition, India, Brazil, and Europe are the leading markets in these regions. In terms of the overall demand share, the stability and weight of the big markets are more certain. Therefore from the situation of these four major markets to summarize the foreign PV development policy, market status, and market size.
1. United States
On June 6, 2022, the U.S. White House announced that the U.S. is allowed to import solar panels from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines under the Defense Production Act, with a 24-month import tariff waiver granted for purchased solar modules. In order to accelerate the United States’ domestic new energy construction, vigorously develop the development of clean energy.
From the centralized power plant to see the status of the U.S. PV project, the entire U.S. market demand for large-scale projects driven by the H.P. Solar Power Policy, this policy in the past few years has been more active in promoting the construction of large-scale projects in the United States. Look at the list of U.S. project planning, from 2022 to 2030 photovoltaic projects have close to more than 200 GW.
Biden’s government after taking office is very optimistic about the new energy and set a very ambitious goal. By 2035 to realize the use of clean energy power to reach 100%. 200 GW, there have been more than 20 GW under construction, in the past two years will be completed. 60 GW has been in the approval, there is a relatively early point of the project is the rest of the more than 100 GW. Overall, the United States of America’s project reserves is very large. Texas has the highest share of the project list, at nearly 70 GW. Each week has its own power policy. California is traditionally a strong state for PV, being on the West Coast with plenty of light hours. The remaining states also have recent project pipelines.
Distributed PV power plant aspects of the United States last year also announced a number of state programs. Expected to install photovoltaic on 500,000 U.S. rooftops. This also led to the development of distribution in the past year or two. From the report of foreign research institutions can be seen, distributed prices are relatively high, ground power stations as long as 1.8-2 U.S. dollars per watt, and the price of different states have differences.
Overall the U.S. attitude towards photovoltaics is to pay much attention. To achieve the goal of new energy utilization, PV is a very important link. In the realization of the localization of the photovoltaic industry chain, the government is giving subsidies to various links: silicon material is 3 U.S. dollars per kilogram, silicon wafers per square meter of 12 U.S. dollars, batteries, and modules are 4 U.S. dollars, and 7 U.S. dollars, but in the short term is still difficult to realize the localization.
2. Europe
On March 8, the European Commission proposed the RE Power EU program, the core of which is to safeguard the EU’s energy security. The motion further sets clear targets for installation. That is, through a dedicated EU solar strategy, to realize the PV installed capacity of 320GW by 2025 and 600GW by 2030. 2021 end of the European cumulative PV installed capacity of roughly 165GW. so 2022-2030 both need 48GW.
The EU solar strategy is mainly the following:
a) Prohibit the use of products produced by forced labor;
b) Encouragement of energy storage devices to complement distributed renewable energy systems;
c) The European Solar Rooftop Initiative, which estimates that rooftop PV could provide nearly 25% of the EU’s electricity consumption;
d) The formation of 20GW of indigenous European wafer, cell, and module capacity by 2025;
e) More than 710,000 people involved in solar energy by 2030, with 80% installation, 10% operation, and 10% maintenance;
f) Limit the approval time for rooftop solar projects to a maximum of 3 months;
g) The desire to adopt regulations to ensure greater support for solar energy in new construction. 2026 mandatory installation of solar energy in new public and commercial buildings larger than 250 square meters. 2027 mandatory installation in public and commercial buildings larger than 250 square meters. 2029 mandatory installation in all new residential buildings. We also mention the enhanced solar thermal applications.
The Russia-Ukraine war has had a significant impact on distribution. Energy prices as a whole are rising rapidly, especially natural gas prices. The high share of Russian gas supplies to the EU leads to high price volatility, and for the population, the cost of electricity increases rapidly. Europe needs to move away from its dependence on Russian gas to stimulate distributed growth. Electricity cost increases are much larger than distributed system costs, and distributed will minimize the impact of electricity price fluctuations on residents.
Europe’s imports of PV modules in 2022 are robust. More than 40 GW are already expected this year, with changes being observed later in the year. Western Europe prefers distributed, Southern Europe favors large ground power plants.
3. India
According to IHS Markit, as of 2021, the cumulative installed capacity of PV in India will be about 44GW, and under the guidance of India’s target of 100GW of installed PV capacity by the end of 2022, India’s new PV installed capacity is expected to exceed 56GW in 2022.
4. Brazil
The demand for PV in Brazil is driven by distribution. In the past two years, there has been a policy of a 10 percent increase in fees for subsequent increases in the electricity grid, which has stimulated demand for distribution in Brazil. For the first time, Brazil is the fourth-largest PV market in the top ten.
Therefore, it is possible to summarize the policy, market status, and market size of foreign PV development from the situation of these four major markets.