L R AS Published on Monday 30 October 2023 - n° 463 - Categories:News of the Month
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L R AS Published on Monday 23 October 2023 - n° 462 - Categories:News of the Month
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L R AS Published on Monday 16 October 2023 - n° 461 - Categories:News of the Month
This week's highlights for 15 October 2023
This week's news for 15 October 2023
The main point ...there are two ways to grow: attracting from abroad or relying on your own strengths...
. The revival of the European photovoltaic industry has been the subject of debate for almost two years. Everyone is well aware that we need to move away from our dependence on Chinese producers. But how can this be done? The American example is well known and appeals to all European manufacturers.
Because of its history, India has chosen another path, that of national stimulation based on customs protection, aid and subsidies, and national preference for production and consumption. It takes longer, but it works.
L R AS Published on Monday 9 October 2023 - n° 460 - Categories:News of the Month
This week's highlights for 8 October
Highlight :
The photovoltaic crisis in Europe is a direct consequence of the installation of new production capacity in China. To avoid keeping too much in stock, Chinese manufacturers have forced European importers to make major purchases in excess of the market's capacity to absorb them. This has resulted in a doubling of supply in 2022. In 2023, imports could also reach twice the level of installations. This has been combined with a fall in prices, which has led to the asphyxiation of European producers unable to compete with particularly low prices. As a result, importers have had to pay a price for the fall in prices. This follows the extra costs imposed by the Chinese during the covid by refusing to import foreign silicon, causing the closure of many factories around the world.
The actions of the Chinese during the recent period should be mentioned, as they have cost Europe several tens of billions of dollars in damage or financial losses. This calls for vigilance.
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L R AS Published on Monday 2 October 2023 - n° 459 - Categories:News of the Month
This week's highlights for 1 October
HighlightVirtual power stations
To say that "virtual power plants are the future" may be a provocative statement, given that they are in the minority, given that Sonnen's shareholder wants to get rid of them, given that they seem to be an attempt with no future. But when it comes from the founder of SunEdison, it makes you think, because he knows what he's talking about.
L R AS Published on Monday 25 September 2023 - n° 458 - Categories:News of the Month
Highlights of the week to 24 September
Highlight :
Should Chinese products be allowed to enter Europe freely in order to favour installers and therefore the public? Or is it preferable to save the European industry, which after a few years will be able to sell panels at a price comparable to that of Chinese products? The debate is stirring the photovoltaic world
A look back at the period 2009-2013 or liberalism versus protectionism
L R AS Published on Monday 18 September 2023 - n° 457 - Categories:News of the Month
Highlights of the week to 17 September
Highlight :
The State of the European Union speech showed better than anything what the Commission has become: a self-satisfaction that will stun economic and social players who are facing serious worries, especially from China. Photovoltaic manufacturers in the European industry will be curious to know that the President remembers the invasion of Chinese panels around 2010, but that she is not announcing anything, even though they are in a comparable situation.
They will be astonished that a committee of enquiry has been set up into Chinese practices in the field of electric vehicles, when their habit is to develop an economic sector extensively and then invade foreign competitors at low cost. By the time the Commission has established this method, manufacturers will have something to worry about.
Having failed to come up with any response to China's attitude, which was its primary role, the Commission has taken it upon itself to look after Europeans, by introducing directives, standards and administrative measures.
L R AS Published on Monday 11 September 2023 - n° 456 - Categories:News of the Month
What to remember this week to 10 September 2023
To our readers,
The price of the subscription to Actualité du Solaire has remained unchanged for seven years. Due to general inflation, we have had to raise the price to €399 per year, instead of the current €359.
We are maintaining the old rates for subscribers who want to take advantage of the prices before the increase, during the month of September. This new subscription will replace the current one when it expires.
We hope you understand
X. Laurent
.
Highlight Will excess production capacity lead to an industrial crisis in China?
When we compare world demand for panels with production capacity, there is a ratio of one to two and even 1 to 3. Despite this imbalance, manufacturers are used to managing this gap and keeping prices under control. However, 2023, and specifically the second half of the year, will be the period when excess production could lead to a significant fall in prices and possibly to a crisis of overproduction.
1st important point :
The gradual mastery of N-type technology, and specifically of TOPCon, will boost the profitability of these products compared with PERC.
. Profitability and prospects for N-type products
2nd secondary point :
Chinese manufacturers' plans to increase capacity, launched in 2022, will come on stream in 2023,
. Panel production capacity to double by 2023; 1 TW reached by 2024!
3rd point (subsidiary) :
Europe is still the main destination for Chinese exports; only there are already too many goods in the queue.
. Chinese panel exports fell in July compared with June and July 2022.
Other interesting points : .
A cacophony over the implementation of the Renewable Energy Acceleration Act
German production and consumption in the first half of the year
BloombergNEF drastically raises its 2023 installation forecasts
L R AS Published on Monday 4 September 2023 - n° 455 - Categories:News of the Month
Key events for the week ending 3 September 2023
Highlight Europe has given priority to the installation of panels and neglected their production. The situation was favourable in 2022, but is no longer so
The Russo-Ukrainian war marked a turning point in the global photovoltaic industry: Europe focused on panel installations, while India and the United States implemented a policy of industrialisation and panel production. The European Union has missed the opportunity for industrial independence. It is now dependent on Chinese industry. The latter is currently launching an offensive to asphyxiate the few small manufacturers that remain and, above all, to kill off any hint of the emergence of serious competitors by slashing prices. China wants to retain a captive market.
L R AS Published on Monday 10 July 2023 - n° 453 - Categories:News of the Month
Highlights of the week to 9 July
Highlight: the development of distributed installations, a worldwide phenomenon.
Almost everywhere in the world, distributed photovoltaic installations are larger in volume than centralised installations! This trend is set to continue, even if the developers of large-scale power plants are temporarily able to obtain supplies of equipment, thereby boosting the number of installations. The development and multiplicity of these micro-generators of energy is causing a change in the organisation of the electricity network. This creates a new challenge for the organisation of energy, but above all for the organisation of society.
L R AS Published on Monday 3 July 2023 - n° 452 - Categories:News of the Month
What to remember this week to 2 July 2023
Highlight Examples of the "will" of the Brussels authorities.
Last week, we were astonished that Europe was imposing so many decisions that seemed ill-conceived, ill-advised and badly put together. We presented them in the form of a will to act, a general attitude to establishing a European 'Union'. This week, we provide some justification for what may have appeared to be a bias. Above all, we want to emphasise that a large number of European decisions are either based on specific statistics, or project very presumptuously into the future. However, it is the people of Europe who will suffer as a result of this desire to legislate, as governments have rarely been seen to back down.
L R AS Published on Tuesday 27 June 2023 - n° 451 - Categories:News of the Month
What to remember this week to 25 June 2023
The point in evidence Willingness and power combine to create directives, obligations and coercion. They create controls and red tape. To comply with the rules, they waste time that is not used for production and dynamism. They make life more rigid.
The European world is characterised by objectives and decisions, in other words by an expression of will. The will believes it has all the power if it is combined with authority. Those who combine the two by virtue of their position know that they can; they know that their wishes will be carried out. The result is often excesses, idiotic, absurd decisions devoid of common sense or practical sense. Recent decisions by the European Commission on photovoltaics are a good illustration of this.
A look at the will
1st important point Is this the boost to European production that everyone was waiting for?
Local authorities can now choose French or European panels
2nd secondary point Compound interest will increase annual global demand by 5 times between now and 2035.
Trina Solar expects LT demand to grow by 15% a year
3rd point (subsidiary) What role should the climate play in politics and everyday life? s.
Appeal to the Conseil d'Etat for climate negligence!
Other interesting points s.
A new PV organisation is asking the Commission for help. It's going about it the wrong way
A new European directive requires renewable installations to double by 2030
L R AS Published on Tuesday 20 June 2023 - n° 450 - Categories:News of the Month
This week's news for 18 June 2023
Highlight The French government's energy vision.
The news is full of nuclear energy, renewable energies and sometimes multi-annual energy plans. Each time, there is a debate, conflicting opinions, meetings and then summaries. Then the government does what it wants. Too much information means that we forget the stages and even the decisions.
It is rare to have access to a summary document from a body reporting to the Prime Minister. It presents France's prospective energy situation. Better than any speech, it sets out how senior civil servants see energy ten years ahead.
A look at the French energy outlook 2023-2030
L R AS Published on Tuesday 13 June 2023 - n° 449 - Categories:News of the Month
What to remember this week to 11 June 2023
Highlight This week's news
Life is generally made up of weeks that look the same and seem to make everyday life unchanging. Sometimes new things happen, or rather new facts that seem incongruous in the course of known elements. But if we know how to spot them, we have the clue to a coming change, even a mutation.
This week, with this experiment in new agrivoltaics, with the next overproduction of panels after that of silicon, with the switch from fossil fuels to renewable energies or even the production of solar energy in space, changes are appearing. For the moment, they are almost marginal, or rather they are a fledgling development, so modest, so fragile, and so full of promise that they need to be examined because they will change our future in just a few half-years' time.
1st important point In May, the high level of renewable energy production reduced the share of fossil fuels.
Renewable energies produced more electricity in the EU than fossil fuels.
2nd secondary point The Inflation Reduction Act sent shockwaves through the US photovoltaic industry.
Strong growth in US installations in Q1
Survey of US installers: high level of confidence
3rd point (subsidiary) What are we to make of the dazzling figures from the Chinese photovoltaic industry association, when the statistics bureau presents much lower figures?
Quarterly production figures for China, which vary depending on the source!
Other interesting points s s.
The French government creates "Mon Accompagnateur Rénov'" (My Renovation Accompanist)
L R AS Published on Tuesday 6 June 2023 - n° 448 - Categories:News of the Month
Things to remember from the week to 4 June 2023
The key point Lower prices in the industry are changing the behaviour of manufacturers and buyers (developers)
The overproduction of silicon from the fourth quarter of 2022 has reversed the trend in prices in the photovoltaic industry. Many manufacturers did not anticipate this phenomenon and continued to produce as before. However, when prices fall due to overproduction, buyer behaviour changes considerably. They avoid buying or they postpone their purchases because they know they will be able to obtain goods on better terms at a later date. This contributes to creating stocks and losses for manufacturers.