Xinjiang

Oversupply is hitting some solar manufacturers hard but grid constraints and labor shortages are unlikely to hold the solar industry back in 2024.

The German company’s decision to cede market share to Chinese companies producing the material for solar panels, in order to focus on semiconductor-ready, electronic grade product, has seen it slip behind its rivals in terms of production scale.

TBEA-owned Xinte Energy says it cannot produce polysilicon quickly enough to meet demand and wants shareholders to back its bid to quadruple its manufacturing capacity by mid 2024.

Polysilicon maker Xinte is forging ahead with a huge expansion strategy just as solar developers at the opposite end of the industry continue to bleed cash.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act would ban all imports from China’s Xinjiang region, unless the US government determines that products were not made with forced labor. The region supplies about 50% of the world’s polysilicon, which is an essential material in solar PV.

If a U.S. customs enforcement action were to take place, importers would need to prove that no forced labor was used at any stage of production, including all the way back to the mine.

The U.S. solar industry faces a moral dilemma, writes Paula Mints of SPV Market Research. Either continue to deploy projects and set aside concerns about forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region, or source PV cells and modules from elsewhere, while bearing higher costs, in the pursuit of urgent action against climate change.

The proposed sale of seven solar farms in China will raise more than $80 million for the heavily indebted developer, which this morning confirmed trading in its stock had resumed after a nine-day hiatus.

While some analysts have said the raw material shortage has eased sufficiently of late for its selling price to stabilize, the chief executive of Xinjiang-based producer Daqo made bullish statements about his company’s prospects yesterday, based on an expectation of continuing tight supply of the solar panel component.

The outlook for U.S. residential solar remains strong, according to Jesse Pichel of ROTH Capital Partners. The large-scale segment, however, is hampered by rising costs and the likelihood of sanctions on Xinjiang-made materials.