This blog contains the concluding part of my Tales from Taiwan feature, with the first blog - Tales from Taiwan Part 1: more capacity comes online, but not in Taiwan - appearing on PV-Tech earlier this week.
The entire solar PV upstream value-chain, including equipment and materials suppliers, is set for drastic changes during 2017, ushered in by a perfect storm of events that has impacted on the industry within a space of 2-3 months, according to the latest release of the PV Manufacturing & Technology Quarterly report from the research team of PV-Tech’s parent owner Solar Media, Ltd.
During the period 2006 to 2011, equipment spending for solar manufacturing was a really big deal for capital equipment suppliers. Companies such as GT Advanced Technologies (then GT Solar) and Applied Materials (serving thin-film and c-Si expansions alike) were clocking up billion-dollar plus backlogs.
Capital expenditure (capex) from solar PV manufacturers is set to decline during the first half of 2017, as the industry adjusts to the excess of new capacity having come online during 2015 and 2016, according to the latest findings in the PV Manufacturing & Technology Quarterly report, released July 2016.
Solar PV manufacturing in 2016 has seen the highest capex (capital expenditure) levels for years, and a return to capacity expansion plans. Furthermore, many of the companies announcing the capacity expansions are doing so for the first time, especially at the cell and module stage.
New research undertaken by the in-house research team at Solar Media Ltd. reveals that 2017 is expected to be the year that Longi Silicon Materials (incorporating its subsidiary LERRI Photovoltaic Technology) finally moves into the upper echelon of solar PV manufacturers.
Andy Colthorpe and Ben Willis profile some of the companies and technologies making waves in the fast-changing world of stationary energy storage, in a feature article which originally appeared in the seventh issue of PV Tech Power.
GE is hoping that with its ‘all-in-one’ integrated service offering, its new commercial energy management venture can also help put some momentum into US commercial-scale solar.
In the second and final installment of his blog from SNEC in China, Finlay Colville continues to extrapolate a snapshot of the global PV industry from what he saw there and how it all fits into wider trends and realities of the market today.
