Global PV markets

The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) released its 2011 Annual Report today, in which it confirmed that 28 gigawatts (GW) of photovoltaic capacity was installed in 2011. In a trend that is turning around, 75 percent of this capacity was added in Europe and 60 percent in Italy and Germany alone.

While small by international standards, German renewable energy developer juwi and Chilean engineering firm Kaltemp have completed construction on what they claim is the largest photovoltaic power plant in Chile. The plant has a capacity of 1.2 megawatts (MW) and is located near the city of Vicuña, in the country’s sunny north.

U.S. electronics manufacturer Jabil has announced plans to make redundant up to 600 workers from its two photovoltaic module plants in Kwidzyn, Poland.

In an apparent confirmation that photovoltaics have the potential to supply electricity demand peaks and therefore reduce the cost of peak power, a German utility has shut down a 55 megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant.

In what has become an ongoing legal drama, the Department of Energy and Climate Change has been refused a right of appeal against a previous High Court finding that its cuts to the feed in tariffs (FIT) for photovoltaics were unlawful. The result being that installations with a reference date between December 12, 2011 and March will be eligible for the higher tariff rates.

In another sign of the tough times for photovoltaic manufacturers, SolarWorld has posted a loss of €299 million (US$393.65 million) loss for 2011. A “ruinous” price war within the industry and balance sheet write-downs has been blamed for the losses.

The U.S. government has announced that it will impose countervailing tariffs on Chinese solar products, but at rates lower than expected. That the tariffs are at the lower end may be seen as a small win for the Chinese PV companies.

The slowdown of the global solar industry is expected to continue well into this year. The need to understand this “crisis” is crucial, according to the experts, who spoke at the first day of the 7th Asia Solar 2012, in Shanghai, China. Overcapacity, meanwhile, is expected to again dominate discussions, while prices will continue to fall. China’s FIT was additionally criticized.

Reactions have been unsurprisingly mixed to the Department of Commerce’s (DOC) preliminary findings on the Sino-U.S. photovoltaic trade case. While the de-facto sponsor of the conflict SolarWorld believes it to be the first step in an ongoing movment, Yingli and Suntech contend that the case is harmful to the whole industry.

At the opening of Solarcon and Semicon China 2012, global industry collaboration was highlighted as a key path forward for the industry. Allan Lu, president of the event organizer SEMI, further stated that the need for energy in China is driving photovoltaic growth in the country.