China's PV market set to explode if European sector collapses

Beijing’s official PV target stands at 15GW by 2015 — having been upwardly revised twice last year in response to declining system prices.

Industry consensus generally centres on a 5GW Chinese market this year, compared with the 2GW it added in 2011 — and just 900MW cumulatively before then.

But Ash Sharma, senior PV research director at IMS, says the Chinese market will reach 5GW even in the absence of any new steps taken by the government to offset declining demand in other regions.

“China