Opportunity in the Global Supply Chain

Most of today’s solar PV modules are made in just three countries, which contain several multi-billion dollar PV factory complexes. Traditional crystalline-silicon modules, with 96% of PV global sales, are heavy and rigid, so not ideal to be moved across the planet. To really grow clean energy globally, fabrication and logistics of solar energy have to become more efficient as well as more flexible. Long supply chains create a vulnerability, where a local problem can lead to product shortages in another continent. With the majority of nations planning a transition to clean energy, the global supply of solar PV needs to be re-imagined.

Today, most of the manufacturing of PV modules is concentrated in just the three top PV module manufacturing countries, all in east Asia: China, Malaysia and South Korea. Together they produce over 85% of solar PV modules, marked in green on the map:

Source: IEA PVPS & RTS Corporation

Already, supply chain problems and trade disputes are causing traditional PV module shortages and price increases. As we move forward to better and lower cost PV, the locations of manufacturing and assembly should be distributed, so that the supply chains vulnerabilities can be reduced. Here is a map of the top 28 top manufacturing nations that represent 85% of global manufacturing marked in brown:

With PI Energy’s technology, we can re-imagine a more sensible future for solar module fabrication, even more distributed that even today’s leading manufacturing nations. This will make PV manufacturing and module assembly truly global, distributed across multiple locations on every inhabited continent, so that each facility can supply product locally. Our technology enables a far lower-cost manufacturing process that can be located in more places. To increase renewable energy, the whole world needs solar PV that can be manufactured globally.