On December 16, the National Energy Administration issued a notice announcing the data of residential solar photovoltaic installations in the first November of 2020. A total of 30 provinces have submitted information on household solar photovoltaic projects.

According to statistics compiled by the National Renewable Energy Information Management Center, the total installed capacity of household solar photovoltaic projects newly included in the national financial subsidy scale in November 2020 is 3,497,200 kilowatts. As of the end of November 2020, the total installed capacity of household solar photovoltaic projects included in the national fiscal subsidy scale in 2020 is 10.122.6 million kilowatts. This means that in 2020, the new installed capacity of household photovoltaics in my country has exceeded 10GW one month ahead of schedule, which is also the fourth consecutive year that my country’s household solar photovoltaics has exceeded the 10GW mark.

Which one has the strongest new installed capacity of household photovoltaics?

Among the specific installed capacity of various regions in 2020, Shandong Province ranked first with 4,575,407 MW installed capacity, Hebei Province ranked second with 2,154,475 MW, and Henan Province ranked third with 1,053.14 MW. The cumulative installed capacity of these three regions has exceeded 7.78 million kilowatts, which is close to 80% of the total installed capacity. This shows how popular household photovoltaics are in these three regions.

From a regional point of view, the current new installed capacity of household solar photovoltaics is mainly in the north, while in many economically developed southern regions, the installed capacity of household solar photovoltaics has not kept pace, especially the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, which are expected to become my country's future residential photovoltaic growth key areas.

As other regions have successively announced subsidy policies for household solar photovoltaics, it is believed that in 2021, China’s new household solar photovoltaic installations will have further growth, and the growth rate is very obvious.

Household photovoltaic installations in recent years

According to the statistics of OFweek Solar Photovoltaic Network, China's household solar photovoltaic installations in recent years have generally increased with the total new installed capacity, and the proportion has also shown an upward trend.

In 2013, the price of solar photovoltaic products in China was relatively high, and it had to rely on policy subsidies for promotion. Centralized photovoltaics contributed most of the installed capacity. Until 2017, there was a rapid growth, from 4.24GW in 2016 to 19.44GW, breaking through 10GW for the first time.

Although the total installed capacity has declined in 2018, household PV has further broken through 20GW, which is a very proud achievement. In 2019, China's total installed capacity of photovoltaics has seen a significant decline, but household photovoltaics still reached 12.2GW, exceeding 10GW for three consecutive years. Coupled with the breakthrough of the 10GW mark again this year, it has remained above 10GW for four consecutive years.

Household photovoltaic prospects

After photovoltaics enter the era of parity, it is no longer a "rare thing" that can only be seen in some sparsely populated areas, but will enter thousands of households and is closely related to the lives of ordinary people, even after solving their own electricity needs, can also provide electricity to the grid. Therefore, household photovoltaics are the focus of future growth in photovoltaic installations.

According to Tao Ye, deputy director of the Renewable Energy Center of the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at the OFweek 2020 (Eleventh) Solar Photovoltaic Industry Conference and Photovoltaic Industry Annual Selection Award Ceremony, from January to September this year, China's photovoltaic power generation increased by 17% year-on-year. Among them, centralized photovoltaic power generation increased by 13% year-on-year, and distributed photovoltaic power generation increased by as much as 30% year-on-year. This will be the focus of continued rapid growth in photovoltaics in the future.

This is the inevitable result of the maturity of the photovoltaic industry, not only in China, but also in the United States, which ranks second in total installed capacity in the world. According to Wood Mackenzie, the world's authoritative energy research organization, between 2020 and 2025, residential photovoltaics in the United States will maintain rapid growth, while non-residential photovoltaics will be relatively stable.

However, photovoltaics in other countries are still in the early stages of development, and they are still dominated by centralized photovoltaics. Only some economically developed core areas will have some demand for household photovoltaics, and overall the volume is not large.

How does the enterprise layout?

Seeing that household photovoltaics are about to enter the "golden age", leading solar photovoltaic companies have not made full efforts to deploy, and their focus is still on centralized photovoltaics.

On the one hand, the overall scale of household photovoltaics is small, which is difficult to compare with centralized photovoltaic projects with hundreds of megawatts, and the construction period is long; on the other hand, the current pattern of Chinese photovoltaic enterprises is not stable. Since 2011, China Companies with the highest shipments of photovoltaic modules, from Wuxi Suntech, Yingli Group, Trina Solar to JinkoSolar, will soon be overtaken by other companies once their rapid growth stops. Therefore, no one dares to switch to household photovoltaic market.

Therefore, the household photovoltaic market will be the main battlefield for many small and medium-sized enterprises in the future. By purchasing components from leading companies, personalized and customized design and installation according to user needs, as well as perfect after-sales service, will be in the air for household photovoltaics. Gradually grow up and become a leading company.

Posted by Cindy Wong | Findy Solar

Findy Solar has been a custom solar solution provider and high efficiency solar panel manufacturer in China since 2006. Types of solar panels: crystalline silicon solar panel, back contact solar panel, amorphous silicon solar panel.