Chinese manufacturing takes over the photovoltaic supply chain
Across roughly half a decade, Chinese manufacturers move from a minority position to dominance at every stage of the crystalline silicon chain — polysilicon, ingots, wafers, cells and modules — through very rapid capacity construction, provincial industrial finance and aggressive pricing. Module prices fall steeply; European and American manufacturers fail in numbers; the European Union and the United States open anti-dumping and countervailing duty cases. The period is dated here as a range because it was a continuous process rather than an event. Its consequence is the central geographic fact of the solar transition: the world's cheapest energy technology is manufactured almost entirely in one country.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Photovoltaic solar generation · technology · global; manufacturing concentrated in China · not located
- The experience (learning) curve · phenomenon · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
World Energy Outlook (annual series)
The reference source for world energy balances, final energy consumption by carrier, generation mix, technology cost trends and scenario pathways used throughout this pack. V55 verification basis: no edition was retrieved in this session — iea.org was refused by the network egress proxy — so every figure attributed to this series is stated as a magnitude with the specific gap named on the citing record, and no current-year quantity should be presented to a reader without confirmation against a named edition.
International Energy Agency, Paris · Partly verified
IEA, World Energy Outlook, annual editions
Recorded on Photovoltaic solar generation
- Wright publishes the airframe cost-quantity relationship
- The conventional start of the photovoltaic module price series
- Germany's Renewable Energy Sources Act takes effect
- Chinese manufacturing takes over the photovoltaic supply chain
- The first Global Stocktake calls for tripling renewable capacity
- Vogtle Unit 4 enters commercial operation
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- Vogtle Unit 4 enters commercial operation · 2024-04
- The first Global Stocktake calls for tripling renewable capacity · 2023-12
- Germany's Renewable Energy Sources Act takes effect · 2000-04-01
- The conventional start of the photovoltaic module price series · 1976
- Wright publishes the airframe cost-quantity relationship · 1936