Solar equipment bound for overseas destinations is manufactured in a workshop of a photovoltaic company in Jinhua, east China's Zhejiang province.
As one of the most competitive emerging renewable energy industries, the photovoltaic (PV) sector has experienced rapid growth in China in recent years.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021–2025), the annual output value of China's PV manufacturing industry exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($147.65 billion); total exports surpassed $180 billion; cumulative installed capacity topped 1,200 GW (gigawatt); PV modules were exported to more than 200 countries and regions.
Yet challenges have emerged. Since 2024, Chinese PV products have faced increasingly intense and often unreasonable competition across overseas markets -- a trend defined by rising export volumes paired with plummeting selling prices.
According to a representative of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, some companies have engaged in excessive low-price competition during exports, eroding industry profits while increasing the risk of trade disputes such as anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations against China's PV sector.
