A short market note from analysts IHS has reported China’s solar industry experienced a weaker first quarter, but coming into the second quarter it can expect a 100% growth rate.
Frank Xie, Senior Analyst for Solar Demand and Supply Chain with information and analysis company IHS posted a short Market Insight this week, reporting that China’s solar industry suffered a weaker first quarter due to the confirmation of a 6-month grace period for the country’s Feed-in Tariff (FiT) for 2017 — which itself was largely in line with market and analyst expectations. However, the 6-month grace period took the heat off companies needing to finish their projects within a certain immediate timeframe, “weakening the outlook for the first quarter slightly,” said Xie.
Specifically, according to IHS’s IHS China PV Market Trend Survey, “the growth expectation for Q1 2017 — which typically shows a slowdown due cold weather in the biggest regions for PV development and the national Spring Festival holiday — has decreased by 21 percentage points and survey participants now predict a 40% decline on average.”
Further, however, Xie believes that the confirmed grace period will lead to a “very strong growth in Q2 2017,” referring specifically to survey responses predicting growth of over 100% quarter-over-quarter between Q1 and Q2, as projects nevertheless ensure they are completed within the 6 month grace period.
China installed a total of 34 gigawatts of solar in 2016, according to the country’s own National Energy Administration, bringing the country’s cumulative solar capacity up to 77.42 GW.
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