For the first time, solar investment surpassed oil!

The Photovoltaic Industry Association (PVIA) expects global solar investment in 2023 to reach $382 billion and oil investment to reach $371 billion. The scale of PV investment will exceed the oil industry for the first time. In this context, the photovoltaic industry association raised the 2023 new installed capacity forecast, China's new photovoltaic installed capacity from 120GW-140GW up to 160GW-180GW.
Centralised PV Becomes A Bright Spot
According to the data released by the PV Industry Association, from January to October this year, China's PV manufacturing end (silicon, wafers, batteries, modules) four segments of the output hit another record high. Among them, polysilicon output was about 1.14 million tonnes, silicon wafer output was about 460GW, cell output was about 404GW, and PV module output was about 367GW, all of which grew by more than 70% year-on-year.
The Photovoltaic Industry Association (PVIA) expects that solar investment in 2023 will reach $382 billion and oil investment will reach $371 billion. PV investment will exceed oil for the first time.
In this context, the photovoltaic industry association raised 2023 new installed capacity forecast, is expected to global photovoltaic new installed capacity from 305GW-350GW up to 345GW-390GW; China's photovoltaic new installed capacity from 120GW-140GW up to 160GW-180GW.
Experts said that centralised PV has become a bright spot, with new installations in the first three quarters growing by more than 250% year-on-year.
Component Prices All The Way Down
From the type of new installed capacity, distributed accounted for slightly higher than the centralised, but the centralised growth rate is faster. The first three quarters of this year, centralised PV installed 61.79GW, an increase of 257.8%. Distributed PV installed 67.14GW, an increase of 90%, of which household growth nearly doubled, more than the growth rate of industrial and commercial PV, the two installed nearly flat.
"The first batch of wind and light large base requirements before the end of the year and grid connection, centralised PV power more obvious." Experts said.
Industry chain price decline to PV enterprises to bring a certain impact. From the export side, 2022, "volume and price", while this year presents "volume increase and price reduction" trend. The first 10 months of total exports of nearly $ 43 billion, down 2.4%, but the export volume still showed substantial growth trend. Silicon wafers, cells, modules, the export volume of 90% year-on-year growth, 72%, 34%, due to the price drop is too fast, especially the price of components fell about 50%, resulting in a decline in exports.
Europe is still the largest Chinese module export market, accounting for about 52.9% of the export value, the proportion has declined.
"Surplus" and "price cuts" have become industry buzzwords. From February, PV module prices all the way down. from October, a number of enterprises PV module bidding price per watt minimum value fell below 1 yuan.
Positive Industry Trend Remains Unchanged
Since 2023, photovoltaic investment began to cold. According to the photovoltaic industry association incomplete statistics, 2022 listed photovoltaic enterprises 15, so far this year so far only 5; about 40 photovoltaic enterprises carried out IPO update, is waiting for listing, but the progress may be delayed. At the same time, enterprises terminate IPO news from time to time.
The China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA) said that the market will be more unpredictable in the future due to uncertainties such as consumption, power market-based trading, and the progress of source network construction. "Despite the risks and challenges, the overall positive trend of the industry has not changed." The relevant person in charge of the Electronic Information Division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.
Data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows that renewable energy will account for 30 per cent of power generation in 2022, rising to nearly 50 per cent in 2030.
Li Shuo, deputy director of the Foreign Trade Department of China's Ministry of Commerce, said at the conference that the Ministry of Commerce will further deepen its opening up to the outside world to create a better environment for promoting the high-quality development of trade in photovoltaic products.
According to reports, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will release a new version of the PV manufacturing industry specification conditions in 2024, to improve the requirements of the relevant technical indicators. At the same time, to promote industrial innovation, strengthen industry self-regulation and supporting construction, deepen international cooperation, build PV docking and cooperation platform.