China’s energy regulator has said it will take steps to limit the addition of “low-end” solar manufacturing capacity, following industry leaders’ call for greater government intervention at a conference earlier this month, reports Caixin. The competition in China’s solar power industry is “indeed very fierce,” an official at the National Energy Administration (NEA) said at a press conference Thursday.
Li Chuangjun, director of the department of new energy and renewable energy sources at the NEA, said the administration intends to “guide” the construction of manufacturing projects in the industry’s upstream segments and take measures to curb “low-end” capacity by avoiding “repeated developments.”
The solar manufacturing chain primarily consists of the production of polysilicon, wafers, cells and solar panels. The first two are typically considered the industry’s upstream segments.