Who is responsible for the photovoltaic environment after Suntech goes bankrupt

In the past few days, people have been discussing the fate of Suntech and the photovoltaic industry under the streets and on the Internet. Suntech Suntech's "aircraft carrier" of the photovoltaic industry, how can it reach the insolvent situation? What are the problems in China's PV industry? Science and Technology Daily reporter conducted an in-depth interview.

Wealth effect in the eyes of enterprises: "Two ends out" of the photovoltaic industry has become a "sweet potato"

"Many entrepreneurs do not understand photovoltaics at all, and they are not interested in photovoltaics. But after Wuxi Suntech and Changzhou Trina Solar went public, 'Shantou' became a 'sweet potato'. The wealth behind photovoltaics is attractive. Entrepreneurs and investment institutions have eyeballs,” said Professor An Wen, director of the Low-carbon Institute of Economic Technology at Hohai University, during an exclusive interview with reporters.

For many years, Anwen has been engaged in new energy research and project promotion. In his view, in the face of photovoltaics, many companies are looking forward to explosive development, "just like a wild horse that has been dislocated, and has repeatedly expanded its production capacity." He said that the wealth effect has caused many companies to lose their rationality. "They believe that as long as they have the money, they can import equipment from foreign countries, dig a few professors or engineers, and recruit some operators to scale production."

As companies from all over the country flock to China, China’s photovoltaic capacity accounts for more than half of the world’s total. Among them, Jiangsu's photovoltaic products accounted for more than 55% of the country's total exports. Suntech, Trina, and Aters were among the top ten photovoltaic companies in the world.

In fact, in the upstream production of silicon and silicon ingots, Chinese PV companies have long relied on foreign technologies; at the same time, as the domestic market failed to open, more than 90% of China's photovoltaic products rely on exports. This has caused the photovoltaic industry's "two out."

Miao Liansheng, chairman of Yingli Group, lamented that if the door to Europe is closed, it will be a disaster for photovoltaic companies. At an internal seminar in Jiangsu Province, some scholars have banged on the table and questioned: "Why have we not been able to make a decisive discourse about the devastating crisis that we may encounter?"

Local government's GDP impulse: blind optimism for future market development According to the March 21 draft of the Xinhua News Agency, more than 100 cities in China have built photovoltaic industry bases.

Meng Xianwei, deputy director of the China Renewable Energy Society, estimated that this figure may exceed 300. "There are still no less than a dozen photovoltaic industrial parks with a production target of over RMB 100 billion, which does not match market demand."

As early as 2008, Shi Zhengrong, the founder of Suntech, pointed out: "Building a photovoltaic industry park in the whole country is an irresponsible behavior."

Regarding the issue of “the local government favors the photovoltaic industry,” An Wen believes that the photovoltaic industry has invested heavily, can not only create a high GDP, but also have the concept of environmental protection and energy conservation. It conforms to the “economic development mode transition” policy requirements and has led local officials to rush.

In An Wen's view: “Local governments are blindly optimistic. They generally believe that the photovoltaic industry is a low-carbon industry and is a strategic emerging industry that is in line with industrial transformation and energy conservation and emission reduction trends. There is no problem in future market development. Therefore, they introduced Many preferential policies to attract various types of capital investment."

In response to this, Meng Xianzhang said: “This local practice ignores the requirements of the total target of the “Renewable Energy Law.” The central content of the laws and regulations guiding the development of the renewable energy industry is the total volume target. It is through policies to protect the market."

The scientific planning has not been able to be clarified: Looking forward to tomorrow in the “internal and external problems”, “Suntech Wuxi has come to the present day and there are “double reverse” impacts in Europe and the United States, and it also exposes the lack of scientific planning for China’s photovoltaic industry.” The reason for this, said Gong Xuejin, Vice President of Suntech.

"As a future world energy commanding point, many countries are making long-term plans for the development and utilization of solar energy. The United States launched the 'million solar roof program' in 1997, and Germany has popularized rooftop power stations 10 years ago." China's photovoltaic industry has always lacked a scientific top-level design.

He believes that the current global photovoltaic industry is in an effective adjustment, there are also opportunities for the crisis there. "From the strategic development, the government should accelerate the introduction of policy support for the photovoltaic industry, with tough measures to deal with the European and American countries 'double reverse' squeeze. At the same time, we will promote the construction of domestic photovoltaic power plants and introduce China's tens of millions of roof projects."

“Our photovoltaic companies are involved in internal and external problems. If the government does not take strong measures, the export situation will be even more difficult. It will not only be tomorrow that Wuxi Suntech has gone bankrupt.” Jiangsu Wuxi Huite Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd. Manager Jiang Zhongwei said.