2. In 2015, 48 solar projects had been implemented with total investments of RM28 billion to produce solar wafers, cells, modules and system components subsequently in 2016 Mida attracted seven solar manufacturing projects and 83 renewable energy projects in the solar industry worth RM1.77 billion and RM650 million.
3. The biggest investment was from Xi'an LONGi Silicon Materials Corp, a major solar photovoltaic (PV) company from China investing RM1.06 billion to set up an integrated solar plant to produce solar ingot, wafer cells and modules in the Sama Jaya Free Industrial Zone in Kuching, Sarawak.
4. in 2016 95.3 per cent of the solar energy industry were from foreign investments, and the rest were from domestic sources creating more than 26,700 job opportunities and generation a value of export and local sourcing activities by top solar companies in the country at RM11.1 billion and RM1.42 billion respectively.
SOLAR GLOBAL DEMAND
1. IHS Technology's PV Demand Market Tracker forecasted annual installed capacity to be 79 GW in 2017. This is a year-on-year growth rate of 34% in 2016, which follows the 32% year-on-year growth in 2015.
2. Global demand will grow only by 3% in 2017 due to the decline in PV installations in the two largest markets in 2016 — China and the United States with two years of single-digit growth before a stronger market recovery in 2019.
3. India's solar market is rapidly maturing and it is benefiting from low system costs globally as India is set to become the third largest PV market in 2017, overtaking Japan which plan lower its feed-in tariffs (FiTs) over the next few years.
4.India is projected to install at least 10 GW of solar capacity in 2017 and take a share of 14% of the global marketplace and demand is expected to increase steadily in the long-term as the country pursues its target of 100 GW of solar by 2022.
5. For the year 2017, China's FIT rates for PV projects will be differed region by region with a a cut of between 13% and 19% from 2016 levels reflecting continuing reductions in deployment costs for solar and wind plants as as it continues towards its latest five-year plan of 110GW of solar by 2020.
6. With U.S.'s new incoming administration talking up coal and gas, prospective domestic policy changes, the U.S. is likely to become less competitive economically if Trump follows through with his catastrophic energy and climate agenda “to hit reset on the most harmful parts of the Obama climate agenda, including the Paris Agreement and the so-called “Clean Power Plan”.”
SOLAR PV SUPPLY CHAIN
1. The supply chain for PV cells is similar with wind energy but with a difference involving a chemical component associated with general semiconductor processing. A simple process as follow.
2. manufacturers should provide products that help installers optimize their business and systems that improve their return on investment (ROI). This enables A PV distributor to provide value to installers and supply as much PV equipment as quickly and efficiently as possible.
3. The basic business model for installers is to install more and larger PV systems in the timeliest and most cost-efficient manner. Manufacturers can help installers close more sales with solutions that offer the homeowner a lower levelized cost of energy.
4. One solution is through improving design flexibility and simplicity of systems so that larger systems can be installed on roofs. This might mean enabling longer strings, strings of uneven lengths, modules in multiple orientations and different roof facets in a single string.
5. Inverter (component that actively manages and monitors a PV system) manufactures can provide value is by embedding more functionalities into the inverter as part of its standard offering, such as monitoring, revenue grade metering, rapid shutdown and even oversizing. Additional features help installers have an advantage over competitors and one way of reducing costs is by embedding more functionalities into the inverter which lowers overall system costs.
6. Another solution is through increasing energy production. This can be done through optimizing each module or improving the efficiency of the inverter and increasing system uptime which is handled by the O&M businesses in the value chain.
7. Inverters play a key role in providing value throughout the entire PV system, it means that the support services offered by the manufacturer might be more important than a reduction of a few cents per watt. Services such as training and post-sale technical support, are key to providing additional value throughout the value chain.
(Source: MIDA, solarpowerworldonline, cleantechnica)
