In recent year, the technology of new energy industry has made advancing progresses. With the support of local governments around the world, the green energy may emerge again to change our world like the industrialization era.
How far is mass industrialization of PV energy?
There are four major types of solar energy: silicon cell, thin film, CPV and CSP. These different types of solar technology have their respective advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, with further technological advancement, they may co-exist in the future.
The technology advancement holds the key to building the foundation for the the industry’s future growth. The advancement in solar technology has greatly brought the cost of solar energy. In addition to technology advancement, the oversupply situation also effected on the price trend. According to EnergyTrend, the average price of polysilicon is down by 21.96% and the average price of cell reduced by 33.58% this year alone.
Industry Continues to Grow with the Right Government Policy Support
Currently, Europe market accounts for the majority of global market demand. Germany is the first country to enact subsidy policy in as early as 2007 which triggered the explosive growth of the PV industry. Other countries such as Italy, Czech Republic, France, and the U.K. also started FIT programs of their own.
To date, the next market driver is now turned to the domestic demand of the U.S. and China. Although the country does not have an universal subsidy program on the federal level yet, American market has a great potential as many states including California have already aggressively passed bills in an attempt to develop the local market while others are examining the possibility to participate this growing industry. Notably, California, which still leads the country in solar development and installation volume, enacted its FIT program in 2009 to help offset the upfront cost of installation which
In terms of Chinese market, there are two national types of subsidy policies: Golden Sun subsidy which offers incentives for the deployment of 500 MW of large scale PV projects and FIT programs that guarantee solar farm operators above market rates for the energy they produce. America and China are predicted to become the two fastest growing markets with the largest installation volumes. According to EnergyTrend, Chinese domestic installation volume is projected to reach 50 GW by 2020.