Aug. 9 – Asia has seen a recent influx in solar-panel shipments over the last quarter thanks to the increased use of solar energy by the Chinese and Japanese governments, with three of the world’s four largest producers having exceeded quarterly sales projections by as much as 32 percent.
The three companies, Canadian Solar Inc., Yingli Green Energy (the world’s largest producer of solar panels) and Trina Solar all shipped a greater number of megawatts than they initially expected due to strong Asian demand.
Canadian Solar’s shipments to Japan have almost doubled from the first quarter thanks to Japan shifting its energy focus to sources of renewable energy after closing various nuclear power plants throughout the country. Furthermore, Canadian Solar shipped over 455 megawatts in solar equipment to Asia in the second quarter alone – well above its initial prediction of 380 megawatts-420 megawatts.
Yingli said that it expects its shipments to exceed its first quarter figures by up to 24 percent (up from the company’s earlier estimate of about 15 percent). China accounted for roughly 23 percent of Yingli’s total shipments last year, nearly quadrupling the 6 percent figure set in 2010.
Trina will ship 630 megawatts-660 megawatts of modules to Asia this quarter, well over its earlier projections of 500 megawatts-530 megawatts thanks to what the company calls “strong sequential growth in Japan and India.”
Stefan Linder, an analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, believes that Japan and China will be the world’s top two solar markets this year.
“In 2013, Asia should make up about half of global solar demand, up from just a quarter last year,” he further noted.
China is expected to increase its number of solar panel installations by 500 percent by 2015, while the Japanese government has implemented incentives to jump-start the development of solar-energy based infrastructure.
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