China bans core solar panel technologies' export

China has recently amended its rules to ban the export of several core solar panel technologies in order to maintain its leading status and global market share in the sector, Asia Times reported.

As per the newly-amended export guidelines published by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology, Chinese manufacturers have been forbidden to use their large silicon, black silicon, and cast-mono silicon technologies overseas.

A solar panel on a rooftop may include a hundred pieces of silicon and China has been leading in machinery to manufacture those.

These technologies, key to accelerating the proliferation of renewable energy to fight global warming and climate change, are used for increasing electricity output and thereby reducing the cost needed to produce each unit of power. 

In the solar panel sector, small silicons refer to those sized at 166mm or below. The larger a piece of silicon, the lower the power generation cost. 

Earlier on 30 December, the technologies were added to a list of items in the "restricted" category in a joint circular on export control published by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

To forbid more Chinese firms to transfer their core silicon technologies overseas, China's commerce ministry last month proposed to include these technologies in its import and export guidelines.

Public consultation in this regard began on December 30 and ended on 28 January after which the commerce industry decided to ban the export of large silicon, black silicon and cast-mono passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) technologies.

Beijing also proposed to restrict the export of the country's laser radar, genome editing and agricultural cross-breeding technologies.

Chinese firms produce more than 80% of the world's solar panels and modules but have faced heavy tariffs imposed by the United States over the past decade.

In 2011, the US Commerce Department ruled that China was dumping solar panels in the US market. In 2012, it imposed duties on Chinese solar panels.

Some Chinese solar panel makers moved to Taiwan to try to evade the tariffs but the US expanded its tariffs to apply to the island. They then moved to Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Last June, the Biden administration said it would waive tariffs on solar panels imported to the US from these four countries for 24 months.

Asia Times said quoting technology experts that China wanted to prevent India from becoming one of the world's major solar panel suppliers.