China’s Solar-Sector Battle Puts Quality at Risk, Longi Says
- Some firms are trying to thin out wafers too fast: chairman
- Industry faces fraught year amid overcapacity, trade tensions
One of the ways that Chinese solar companies have brought down production costs over the past decade is by slicing ever-thinner square wafers that house photovoltaic cells, saving money by reducing material costs.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The fierce competition sweeping China’s solar sector is threatening the quality of production at some companies, as plunging profits trigger a scramble to cut costs, according to a top industry executive.
“We’ve noticed that people have started to sacrifice quality to cut costs, which is a dangerous signal,” Zhong Baoshen, chairman of Longi Green Energy Technology Co., said Friday at the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan, China.