Up To 40% Of Chinese Solar Panels For Domestic Consumption Fail To Meet Output Specifications [View all]

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Flaws found in some Chinese solar panels can drastically eat into their efficiency, reducing how much power the panels will produce as the country races to meet aggressive goals to hold the line on fossil fuel emissions. The defects, found in products set to be used only in China, are in a coating that suppresses reflections on glass, allowing the panels to capture more light. About 23 percent of samples taken from dozens of Chinese companies failed to meet requirements, according to regulators in China. For samples from Jiangsu, the eastern province where much of the glass is made, the rate was as high as 40 percent.

China is promoting both large solar farms in remote areas and smaller, rooftop systems within cities, and domestic demand for panels is climbing. In a landmark pact announced with the U.S. in November, China set a target of getting as much as 20 percent of its energy from clean sources by 2030. That goal will rely heavily on its rapidly growing solar industry, which controls about 70 percent of the global market.

“A reduction in power generation caused by quality imperfections means declining investment returns or even losses from solar farms,” said Meng Xiangan, vice chairman of the China Renewable Energy Society, an industry group.

China became the world’s biggest solar market in 2013 and accounted for about a quarter of global solar additions in 2014, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Its total solar installations surged almost 10-fold in the past three years to about 33 gigawatts. The findings, which didn’t identify specific manufacturers, feed into criticism that quality problems at solar panel makers are a result of cost cuts as prices have plunged in recent years.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-20/defective-panels-threatening-profit-at-china-solar-farms-energy.html