Lookback of July 2022

In this post, we would like to go through what happened during the last July in the Renewable Energy Industry in the world.

• According to IRENA, a study on the global RE projects in 2021 reveals that the average LCOE of Solar PV project has dropped by 13% to 0.048$/kWh, and of on-shore Wind projects has dropped to 0.033$/kWh. The worldwide pandemic and international conflicts have brought us so much uncertainty, but the good news is that the renewble energy is still getting more and more affordable to commoners.

• In 2022H1, there were 91 transactions completed globally among the solar corporates (including ventures capitals, public markets and debt financing), totaling 12 billion of USD, resulting an 11% YoY drop. Taking in consideration the unfavorable situation of the fossil energy, the investment into renewable energy is still expected to create huge bonus in 2022.

• In 2021, the Energy Storage (ES) market has kept a high speed in growth. During the year, the newly added capacity of ES was 18.3GW globally, hitting a YoY increase by 185%, in which China, US and Europe have taken the major share of 85%.
• As of the end of 2022H1, there were 30.88GW newly added Solar Projects topping the Chinese domestic market. In a bigger picture, the investment into power-generation projects has grown by over 283% in China during the same period of time.

• The foundation of a Unified Power Spot Market is accelerating in China, in which the southern region of the country has become the pioneer. However the participants in the spot market is facing a “Double Strike” risk that both the Hours with Fixed Tariff and the Spot Market Price are expected to drop that the financial model of the projects are likely to be compromised.
• The large-scale energy storage is developing swiftly China. A forecast has indicated that a total new capacity of 42GW to 72GW will be added in the coming 4 years.
• Companies dedicated in PV, Wind and Oil & Gas industries began to set foot in the Hydrogen Industry. The green energy for hydrogen production mainly comes from the PV and Wind power companies by constructing more RE power plants, while large Energy Corporates have more focus on the upstream business along the hydrogen industrial chain such as electrolyzers, storage & transport and applications. As predicted by Hydrogen Council, the total investment in the industries related to hydrogen would exceed 500 Billion USD by 2030.
• China has officially launched the Carbon Credit Assessment Standard, which is first standard of the type both in China and in the world. The standard is categorized into 3 Grades and 9 Levels. This standard is expected to part of the international carbon standards recognized globally, which helps the Chinese companies to gain more "Green Competitiveness" in the world.
• The marine freight in July kept going down.

• As per data from the customs, the accumulated solar module exportation from China in 2022H1 is 84GW, with a YoY growth of 90%.

• The European market keeps heating up, which resulted in an increasing PPA price.

• In India, the customs authority allowed the importation of components for a solar project at a concessional rate of 5%, much lower than the 40% Basic Custom Duty (BCD) set by the government to boost the local manufacture and tackle the importation from outside India.
• As of 22 July, the price of Mono-grade Polysilicon is 286,000 to 308,000 RMB/ton with an average level of 295,500 RMB/ton, resulting a MoM growth by 0.92%. In 2022Q4, the Polysilicon capacity from TBEA, Yongxiang, Daqo would be released which helps with the ease against the intense supply. The Polysilicon raw materials prices are going to have a slight drop in Q4 since the demand would be maintained since Q4 is usually the peak season for solar projects' construction, so the prices are highly possible to keep in higher position ending this year. In 21st July, TCL-Zhonghuan published its up to date solar wafer prices, all sizes wafer had a rise in price due to the high demand of Mono wafer, in which the P Type M6 goes up to 6.26 RMB/pc, M10 to 7.53 RMB/pc and G12 to 9.93 RMB/PC. In our prediction, there is still room to grow for M10 and the price is likely to keep going up in the next weeks. The prices of solar cells are highly dependent to the solar wafer and the demands from the solar module manufacturers, while the profitability of the solar cell companies keeps recovering. The prices of solar modules are relatively high, which brings more challenges to the costs of the solar projects. In short term, there would be influence to the downstream demand, and the upstream and midstream continue in wrestling.