Magazine Archive 06 - 2025 The hunt for high efficiency

As JinkoSolar’s Dany Qian notes in this month’s Final Thought (p. 80), the previous 12 months have been among the most difficult faced by the solar manufacturing industry. There are few signs the oversupply that has driven PV component prices ever lower will change meaningfully before the year is out, and escalating import restrictions (pp. 18-21) only create further uncertainty.

The Invesco Solar ETF (TAN) underperformed the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) in April 2025. Jesse Pichel of Roth Capital Partners attributes this to concern over proposals included in the US administration’s budget reconciliation bill that could be detrimental to the solar industry.

China announced new regulations this year that should result in a more market-oriented approach to renewables deployment. S&P Global Commodity Insights analysts Holly Hu and Anqi Shi say the new regulation No. 136 will play a crucial role in shaping China’s renewable energy sector, while introducing revenue uncertainties that will have a ripple effect on the global cleantech supply chain.

Solar manufacturers are pursuing the next-generation crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV cell technology. Back-contact (xBC) technologies including TOPCon back-contact (TBC), HJT back-contact (HBC), and HJT TOPCon back-contact (HTBC) have emerged as leading candidates, attracting attention for their superior conversion efficiency and aesthetic module designs. InfoLink analysts Derek Zhao and Kyle Lin examine xBC’s market potential.

Low module prices, persistent overproduction, wasteful packaging, excessively long supply and transport pathways, and a lack of reuse and repair practices are all unsustainable characteristics of the solar industry that have become entrenched, writes Martin Schachinger of pvXchange.com.

Tempestuous trade conditions and policy uncertainty have led to module price fragmentation in the United States. Ahead of an expected reduction in manufacturing capacity utilization, leading manufacturers in China produced a high volume of cells in the spring. OPIS editorial director Hanwei Wu explains the latest market developments.

As US-China tariffs escalate, China’s solar industry finds itself at the center of a geopolitical storm that threatens not only its global market share, but also the world’s decarbonization goals. Vincent Shaw reports from Shanghai.

The US solar sector is waiting for key decisions on new trade proposals that, if approved, could further pressure an industry already accustomed to import tariffs. The draft budget reconciliation bill making its way through the approvals process in the United States could have a dramatic impact on the solar sector. The problem is nobody knows what the full scale of this impact could be – not analysts, not industry representatives, and certainly not manufacturers.

Indonesia has the resources to quickly increase the share of renewables in its power mix, including abundant solar, geothermal and pumped storage potential to help stabilize the grid. The government has introduced policies to attract foreign investment, including through the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), but it is still sending mixed signals about phasing out coal in favor of renewables, as Neil Ford reports.

State support is nothing new for solar in Malaysia, but following years of steady growth, things are ramping up. Following a big tender announcement and a slew of new support mechanisms, industry leaders and market analysts tell pv magazine how blending private sector investment with government backing can bring Malaysian PV to the next level.