On Feb.24th, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced it will make a substantial cut to the PV rate in its feed-in tariff (FiT) program for renewable energies. The rate of return for the PV system as a whole has also been revised significantly downward. This in turn seriously affects Japan’s 2015 PV market, which is projected to shrink perhaps by 20%. This will naturally add uncertainties to the global market.
Chai Jing’s documentary, “Under the Dome” has stirred up Chinese society’s deep concern about smog and other pollution problems that are widespread in the country. While China annual GDP on average has grown by about 10% over the last 20 years, the amount of GDP spent on addressing environmental issues during the same period has seen less than 1% growth.
Due to increases in both shipments and conversion efficiency, Taiwanese PV cell makers experienced a record shipment growth in 2014, according to the latest report by EnergyTrend, a division of TrendForce. This growth was in spite of being under the anti-dumping and countervailing investigation by the United States International Trade Commission (referred to here as the USITC) during the year.
The US International Trade Commission (USITC) has officially voted to uphold the findings that Chinese and Taiwanese PV manufacturers have been dumping their products. The tariffs against PV imports will follow the Depart of Commerce’s (DOC) decision which was released on Dec. 2014: anti-dumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) will be imposed on Chinese PV imports and anti-dumping tariffs will be imposed on Taiwanese PV imports.
TrendForce Corp., a global market intelligence firm, announced today (January 22) that it has become the majority shareholder of Topology Research Institute, with all the controlling stakeholder’s operating rights entailed. Kevin Lin, the CEO of TrendForce, will also hold the title of Chairman of Topology. Topology’s operations, brand, and managing staff will be under the same business model after the merger.