China and Photovoltic (PV) Manufacturing

Energy crises is increasing day by day through out the World. China is trying its best to cope with the energy requirements of the time. In the first two financial quarters of 2010, Suntech Power Holdings Company Ltd. (Wuxi, China) surpassed previous industry leader First Solar Inc. (Tempe, Arizona, U.S.) in sales to become the world's largest solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturer by revenue. During the third quarter of 2010, both Suntech and JA Solar Holdings Company Ltd. (Zhabei, China) surpassed First Solar in manufacturing capacities as well.

Such developments were hardly surprising to industry observers. This is a good pace of progress. Suntech and JA Solar are the tips of the iceberg in terms of China's enormous PV manufacturing industry, and such stories illustrate the slow consolidation of China as the undisputed center of the PV manufacturing world.

Clean energy manufacturing leaders

These trends have been establishing themselves for years, and are related to China's emergence in 2010 as the world's largest exporter and the economic powerhouse of the 21st century. However, PV manufacturing has unique conditions as an industry, and the reasons for China's dominance in PV manufacturing tell an important story with global relevance for other nations who seek to remain or become clean energy manufacturing leaders in the 21st century.

This report by Solar Server, with the assistance of iSuppli Corporation (El Segundo, California, U.S.), will cover the emergence of China as the world leader in PV manufacturing. Our focus is on recent developments in 2009 and 2010 and particularly shared characteristics of large Chinese PV manufacturers, as expressed by industry leading companies including Suntech, JA Solar, LDK Solar Company Ltd. (Xinyu, China), Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Ltd. (Baoding, China), Trina Solar Limited (Changzhou, China), and others.

Scale of the Chinese PV manufacturing industry

Chinese PV cell and module shipments have gained an increasing share of the world PV market every year since 2004. In 2009, the manufacturing operations of six of the top 15 cell manufacturers and seven of the top 15 module producers were based in China.

When taken together, Chinese manufacturers produced 3.84GW of PV cells and 3.60GW of PV modules during the year, representing roughly 2/5 of the roughly 10 GW of PV cells and the 8 GW of PV modules produced. China's market share of crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV is even higher, as c-Si represents the large majority of cells and modules produced in the nation.

As the scale of the global PV industry has grown and the factors leading to such changes have intensified in 2010, it is estimated that both total cells and modules produced by Chinese companies and market shares have increased as well.

Accelerating the Transition to a Clean Energy

As this world is now facing a sever energy crises, so every country has take concrete steps to overcome this difficulty. In this regard President Obama announced during his weekly address that the US Department of Energy will endow $1.85 billion from the Recovery Act to two solar companies: Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar

This kind of loan guarantee aims to create jobs, stimulate the economy, and promote clean energy for the US -- enlivening the notion of sustainable development in which businesses, labor, and environmentalists can collaborate and mutually benefit.

According to a White House release, Abengoa Solar will construct the first ever large-scale solar plant in Arizona with $1.45 billion in funding, creating over 1,600 construction jobs and clean energy for 70,000 homes. Abound Solar Manufacturing will develop a plant that manufactures solar panels in Colorado and another in Indiana with a sum of $400 million in funding, generating over 2,000 construction jobs, conserving energy for 200,000 homes, and producing more than 1,500 permanent jobs in manufacturing and technology industries.

There may be many reasons for it . That's one of the reasons why we're accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy and doubling our use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power - steps that have the potential to create whole new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs in America," Obama said.

According to an Abengoa Solar release, the company is moving along with this agenda. I think now every country in the third world should also take practical steps .

Santiago Seage, CEO of Abengoa Solar, said the company can now start construction of its Arizona plant.

"What the project needs now is for Maricopa County and the state to continue their support and work expeditiously on the last remaining permits needed for construction to begin," Seage said in a release.

Kate Maracas, VP of Abengoa Solar, calculated that "the building of Solana will also create between 1,600-1,700 new construction jobs, and operation of the plant will add another 85 permanent jobs. These construction and operating jobs will create a few thousand additional indirect jobs. Taken together, 98% of the jobs created by Solana will be American jobs - primarily from Arizona, and a smaller portion from neighboring states."

Similarly, Abound Solar Manufacturing's news release notes the importance of the funding. It is the need of the time to fund this type of projects.

"The DOE loan guarantee program is essential to helping companies like Abound Solar scale-up innovations in photovoltaic manufacturing that are critical to reducing the cost of alternative energy," Tom Tiller, CEO of Abound Solar, said. "The proceeds of this loan will build on the momentum we have already established and confidently expand our operations."

Steve Abely, CFO of Abound Solar, asserted that "state and local representatives from both Colorado and Indiana were particularly instrumental in our efforts to secure the loan guarantee to create more high-paying jobs in America, and ensure that our nation will continue to be a global driver of renewable, affordable and abundant solar energy."

Andrea Buffa, spokesperson for the non-profit Apollo Alliance, while saying that "clean energy is really the best way to address both the jobs crisis that the U.S. faces and the environmental crisis that the world faces," thinks that the government could have done a better job.

"But these investments pale by comparison to the clean energy investments that are being made in places like China and the European Union, and if the U.S. doesn't make a long-term commitment to clean energy very soon - in the form of the Senate passing a clean energy and climate bill with strong manufacturing provisions - we're going to fall even further behind in the global clean energy race than we already have," Buffa said.

"The U.S. should put a cap and price on carbon emissions," Buffa said. "This will give businesses an incentive to switch to cleaner sources of energy and should lead to significant private investment in the clean energy sector. We should also adopt a national renewable energy standard and strong building and appliance energy efficiency standards, and we should move toward cleaner forms of transportation. Those policies will create the demand for clean energy products and services."

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Energy can be produced from the waste also.