China PV Manufacturers: New Kids on the Block

One of the more interesting aspects of the huge investment China is making in the development of renewable energy sources is the sheer newness of the companies. At the Shanghai Photovoltaic Trade Show and Conference last week one of my colleagues and I settled down with two sales women in a huge booth with walls painted dark blue and no ceiling. Stenciled on the back drop of the booth in white lettering was the phased plan of the state-owned company from Hebei that was just getting into the manufacture of PV cells: the first phase of the factory would be complete by mid-2010; the second phase by mid-2011. The company produced wire before deciding to expand into PV cell production.

My colleague asked one of the young ladies, “So, you don’t produce solar cells yet?” The young woman, tall by Chinese standards, with bad skin and a nice smile, said, “No, but we will be soon.” She parroted the project plan on the back wall. “So, where are you getting all your designers and engineers?” my colleague asked. “Oh, from down south,” she answered without hesitation. By down south we took her to mean the Yangtze River Delta.

Nearly all the Chinese PV producers my colleague and I saw at the show boasted start-up dates of 2007 and 2008, as though the weight of 4,000 years of history filled in the rest of the technical and quality advancements upon which the industry based its reputation. It all rather struck me as the same sort of ramp up and eventual eruption of depressed earnings and exagerated over-capacity that are plaguing so many other industries in China.

Who knows, perhaps one day shoppers will be able to pick up solar panels for home use at their local Walmart. On discount.