PVTIME – At the SNEC 18th Global Photovoltaic & Energy Storage Conference, global energy executives have rallied behind the sector’s long-term potential, despite warning of short-term challenges in a candid dialogue on Thursday. The summit, a highlight of China’s clean energy calendar, focused on “PV-storage synergy” and “market confidence”, with delegates discussing supply and demand imbalances, as well as policy bottlenecks.
Sany Silicon Energy chairman Dai Qinghua described the new energy revolution as being in its “teenage years”, citing the rapid shift of rooftop PV from unviable to prime asset at his Chongqing plant as an example. ‘While domestic investment cools, global demand for green energy is at an all-time high. AI’s endgame is energy, and we hold the solution,’ he told delegates, citing 260 billion kWh of new PV generation last year — equivalent to the UK’s annual consumption.
Liu Yong, a 20-year industry veteran from DAS Solar, decried current pricing distortions as a ‘temporary aberration’, predicting that technological leaps such as tandem cells and BC technology would reset commercial logic. ‘The next cycle will cull the weak players – the survivors will thrive,’ he warned, highlighting rigid end-user electricity pricing as the ‘last mile’ hindering growth.
Former NEA official Liu Yafang praised the summit’s focus on PV-storage integration, recalling the initial scepticism surrounding energy storage. ‘What once seemed a burden is now recognised as PV’s lifeline for grid stability.’ This view was echoed by the China Energy Research Association, which hailed PV’s 60% share of new power generation as ‘proof of sectoral resilience’.
With installations surpassing 1 billion kW nationwide by May, delegates agreed on the need for ‘strategic capacity control’. ‘This isn’t a crisis – it’s a maturing industry shedding its adolescence,’ concluded an executive summary, as the sector looks to technological innovation and policy reforms to drive the next wave of growth.
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