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Weekly UpdatesThe solar photovoltaic industry has its unique competitive edge, said Liu Hanyuan, executive deputy director of the Chamber of New Energy, All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and chairman of Tongwei Group.
Sunshine is rich in China. Annual solar exposure could reach 3 350 to 8 400 megajoules per square meter in two thirds of China's territory, averaging at 5 860 MJ/[m.sup.2], or equivalent to the quantity of heat of 199 kilograms of standard coal.
Every year, solar energy by the sunshine reaching the surface of earth in China is equivalent to the power of 2.4 trillion tons of standard coal, or 842 times the nation's total energy consumption of 2.85 billion tons of standard coal in 2008.
The west part of Tibet has the richest sunshine, topping 2 333 kilowatt-hours per square meter annually, or 6.4 kW/[m.sup.2] daily, the second highest worldwide after the Saharan desert in Africa.
The sand-desertification area occupies more than 1 million square kilometers in China, mainly in the sunshine-rich northwest and southwest. Assuming 1% of such areas were installed with solar PV (photovoltaic) system with a conservative conversion capability of 100 peak watt per square meter, China's total installed solar PV capacity could reach 1 billion kW. China's total installed power generation capacity is only 800 million kW in 2008.
The world has witnessed leapfrogging development and applications of solar PV over the recent years. The polysilicon business, the upper stream of the solar PV industry chain, is getting increasingly mature in terms of technology and commercialization, and can be produced with almost zero emission.
The global PV industry has an average annual growth of 41.3% over the past ten years, and the production capacity of PV cells has expanded by 35 times during the same timeframe. In China, PV cell production has exceeded 2 000 megawatts, or 36.7% of the global total. However, the development in domestic solar energy generation market is slow, with solar energy installed capacity only accounting for less than 2% of global total by the end of 2008, in sharp contrast with its solar cell manufacturing segment
Solar PV has unique advantages in China because there are plenty of resources to harvest, and given PV cells' characteristics such as durable, safe, convenient, easy for maintenance and cheap for operation, Liu said. The Chinese government should grant further preferential policies to support the fledging PV sector, making it more competitive and the new growth driver of the economy, he said.
As fossil fuels would be gradually used up while PV sector is on a fast track of development, solar energy could eventually become the crown jewel of the future energy family given its high conversion efficiency, easy available, reliable, economic and environmental friendly characteristics.
Undoubtedly PV technology would be at the center of the next round of industrial technology revolution in the current century.
China's PV industry has been increasing annually 191.3% since 2002. China's PV cell output remained the world's No.1 in 2008 after 2007. The nation's polysilicon production exceeded 4 000 tons in 2008.
China's total power generation capacity stood at 713 million kW in 2007, and 800 million kW in 2008. Assuming 10% of China's power capacity could be solar power-based, it could trigger a RMB2 trillion market volume, a sector that would be larger than the property market and support China's growth in the next 20 or 30 years.
Liu said the PV industry must be the leading growth engine for China's economic growth in the next 20 to 30 years. In this regard, the PV sector should annually grow at 30% to 50% in the next 10 to 20 years, or even longer. While replacing conventional energy sources and expanding applications, the PV sector will bring more jobs and infrastructure improvement as well as business opportunities, and meanwhile speed up the economic recovery in China or even in the world, he stressed.
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