The PV Industry Welcomes Policy Boost: Curbing Low-Level Redundant Construction as the 15th Five-Year Renewable Energy Development Plan Is Accelerated in Drafting.

At the "2024 PV Industry Development Review and 2025 Outlook Seminar" held today, Ting Li, Director of the Electronic Information Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), mentioned in her speech that the recent State Council executive meeting proposed resolving structural imbalances in key industries by addressing both supply and demand, tackling both symptoms and root causes, and promoting industrial quality improvement and upgrading.

She stated that the next step for the Electronic Information Department will be to thoroughly implement the decisions and deployments of the Central Committee and the State Council, focusing on regulating industry development, strengthening standard-setting, accelerating industrial innovation, and promoting international cooperation. This includes curbing low-level repetitive construction, further guiding local governments to adapt to local conditions and rationally plan PV projects, reducing PV manufacturing projects that merely expand capacity, and raising industry entry thresholds by increasing the capital ratio required before project construction and setting higher technical standards for products after project completion.

Over the past two years, domestic new PV installations have remained at high levels. Xing Yiteng, Director of the New Energy Division of the New Energy and Renewable Energy Department of the National Energy Administration, introduced that in terms of new installations, after surpassing 200 million kW for the first time in 2023, 2024 again exceeded expectations, reaching 278 million kW, up 28% YoY. Regarding installation structure, cumulative distributed PV installations reached 375 million kW, accounting for 42%, with the structure continuing to optimize. In terms of power generation, PV power generation in 2024 exceeded 700 billion kWh, accounting for 8.6% of total electricity consumption, up 1.2 percentage points from 2023, further enhancing the supply capability of green electricity.

To promote high-quality development of the PV industry, the National Energy Administration has actively improved the policy environment. Xing Yiteng stated that this year, the Energy Law was officially introduced, establishing legal support for the priority development and utilization of renewable energy. A draft amendment to the Renewable Energy Law has also been completed.

He also noted that the National Energy Administration, in collaboration with multiple departments, has issued a series of policy documents to fully support the development of PV and other new energy sources. Currently, research and drafting of the "15th Five-Year Plan" for renewable energy development are being accelerated. In October last year, six departments jointly issued guidelines on vigorously implementing renewable energy substitution actions, assigning and promoting consumption responsibility weights to key industries and major energy-consuming units.

Regarding major project construction, the development of large-scale wind and solar power bases is progressing steadily. The first batch of bases has been fully commissioned, while the second and third batches are under active construction. Significant progress has also been made in the "Three North" desertification control and integrated wind and solar power projects, with the ecological restoration and comprehensive benefits of PV desertification control projects becoming increasingly evident.

However, Xing Yiteng also pointed out that the industry faces severe challenges across the upstream and downstream sectors. In the upstream manufacturing sector, cut-throat competition is intense, the foreign trade situation has deteriorated, and enterprises are generally experiencing losses. In the downstream development and application sector, electricity consumption imbalances are prominent, with rising curtailment rates in some western provinces and regions. Distributed PV faces numerous constraints in terms of carrying capacity and urban development space. Although the comprehensive market entry policy for new energy has been introduced, implementation details at the provincial level remain incomplete.

During her speech, Ting Li stated that in response to the current unfavorable situation, the MIIT will work with relevant departments to actively implement industrial regulation, coordinating efforts from both supply and demand sides to help the industry recover as soon as possible.

She emphasized that the broad development prospects of the PV industry remain unchanged. Moving forward, the Electronic Information Department of the MIIT will thoroughly implement relevant decisions and deployments. In addition to strengthening control over new capacity, efforts will focus on promoting industrial innovation and upgrading, better leveraging the guiding role of standards and the protection of intellectual property rights, and enhancing the synergy between technical standards and intellectual property. The department will also support and cultivate leading enterprises to consolidate and enhance global competitiveness, deepen international cooperation, and promote the high-level internationalization of China's PV industrialisation, thereby establishing international discourse power commensurate with China's industrial status.