Nine of the top producers are Chinese and seven of those made a combined loss of $3.7 billion last year as investment outpaced demand.
Five of the seven made a loss while market leader Jinko Solar saw profits fall 98%.
New solar panel installations worldwide grew about 40% in 2022 to 242GW, grew to 456 GW in 2023 and to 602 GW in 2024, says the IEA.
But producers expanded production over-aggressively , and panel prices have fallen 70% from early 2022 to late 2024 when they hit 9 cents per watt.
Chinese companies responded to a saturated domestic market by exporting – panel exports jumped by roughly 50% between 2020 and 2024 to $30.6 billion.
Last September the European Solar Manufacturing Council wrote to EC President Ursula von der Leyen calling for “appropriate trade defense measures” to protect European producers.
There is little immediate hope of a market recovery because BloombergNEF estimates new solar installations will reach 993 GW in 2035 and production capacity was already 1,446 GW at the end of last year.
