China’s Solar Giants Have a Fix for Their Broken Supply Chain
A wave of polysilicon projects will address a raw material shortage that pushed solar panel prices higher and threatened to slow adoption of clean energy.
Photovoltaic panels at a solar farm in Qinghai province, China.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergThe supply chain snarl that tripled the price of a key raw material for solar panels is about to get fixed, clearing the way for a renewed boom in the use of the clean energy technology.
China is spending billions on new factories to produce polysilicon, used to make photovoltaic cells for solar panels. Global capacity has already been boosted by more than a quarter in the past two months, and it will double by early next year. That should help rein in prices of the material after surging costs slowed the pace of new renewables projects.