China is transitioning from a solar manufacturing powerhouse to a leading innovator in intellectual property (IP), said a national photovoltaics (PV) IP operation director at a recent industry conference in Beijing.
‘In 2022, China represented over 80 percent of capacity and production across all stages of the solar photovoltaic supply chain, including polysilicon, wafers, cells, and modules,’ stated Chen Wei, Executive Deputy Director of China’s Photovoltaics Industry IP Operation Centre, during the China IP annual meeting.
According to China Economic Net, this information is drawn from the Photovoltaics IP Development Report for 2023.
Beyond PV manufacturing, Chen also noted a significant increase in research and development (RandD) investment among Chinese firms. ‘Several Chinese PV giants have been allocating about 5 percent of their business revenue to RandD in PV technology over the past years,’ he said.
The manufacturing prowess and RandD investments have encouraged more Chinese enterprises and re
search institutes to innovate in the industry. In solar cell efficiency research, more and more Chinese solar enterprises and research institutes have become contributors to the best research-cell efficiency chart. The chart, updated by the Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a national laboratory under the US Department of Energy, documents the highest confirmed conversion efficiencies for research cells for a range of solar technologies.
‘Solar cell efficiency is a critical metric in the industry,’ Chen explained. ‘It measures how effectively a solar cell converts sunlight into electricity. Higher efficiency means more power from the same surface area.’
The RandD push has driven a surge in intellectual property initiatives. As per data from the photovoltaics IP development report, China’s annual solar patent applications skyrocketed from 40.8 percent of the global total in 2014 to 82.6 percent in 2021, totaling more than 175,000 cumulative applications by 2022, taking up 48 percent
of the world’s total.
The country now holds 33,970 valid patents in key PV technologies including raw materials, wafers, cells and modules, according to the photovoltaics IP development report.
Source: Emirates News Agency