Chairman and President of Astronergy, Lu Chuan, recently delivered a keynote speech on the trends of overseas solar market and the development opportunities of overseas solar enterprises on a forum held in Beijing.
According to industry statistics, since 2022, the manufacturing layout planning of key overseas regions such as Europe, the United States, and India has covered multiple links such as polysilicon, wafers, cells, modules, and trackers, with planned new production capacity exceeding 80 GW. In 2023, there will be a surge in overseas expansion projects, with diversified investment entities and more intense international competition, said Lu.
He also introduced that, Europe, facing energy shortages and other issues, has started to focus on renewable energy and has seen a high demand for Chinese solar products. Under high demand growth, the EU will accept a higher premium. However, the current acceleration of reshaping local solar manufacturing and decentralized supply chain layout in Europe and America has also brought new challenges to China’s solar product exports.
Meanwhile, some new trade barriers also require industry attention. Since last year, these barriers have been forming in the European and American markets around issues such as carbon control and human rights. Lu believes that in the face of such obstacles, China’s solar industry must establish a higher level of competitiveness – supply chain diversification and low-carbonization.
Lu pointed out that China’s solar industry needs to comply with overseas market trends and strengthen its ability to develop outward. On the one hand, it is necessary to actively promote the internationalization of China’s technological standards, promote the construction of a mutual recognition system for renewable energy international cooperation standards and norms, and form an relevant cooperation system. On the other hand, in the face of weak power infrastructure and insufficient flexibility of power grid systems in some countries, it is necessary to effectively carry out research and analysis on grid balance and scheduling rules, electricity load patterns, and load consumption to avoid project investment risks arising from this.
Meanwhile, Chinese solar enterprises should fully embed international ESG rules into corporate governance, compliance management, risk management, and information disclosure systems, establish professional teams, and reserve global ESG consulting resources.
Furthermore, facing the financing requirements of overseas markets, enterprises should broaden their overseas financing channels and strengthen their understanding of the overseas financial system, added Lu.
Astronergy has entered power station development since 2009, taking the lead in building solar power stations in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and South Korea, a global layout both domestically and internationally. At present, the company has established overseas branches in countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Bangladesh, Poland, etc., formed localized market development and engineering teams, and invested in the construction of over 250 overseas solar power stations in more than 30 countries.
