Abstract
The photovoltaic (PV) industry in China is still in the early stage of development and is extremely unbalanced; breakthroughs in key technologies are necessary. To achieve high efficiency and sustainable development, it is important to identify the bottleneck of the whole industry chain through the analysis of overall industrial technical efficiency. Based on the current situation of the PV industry, this study builds the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to respectively evaluate the efficiency of PV devices and power generation in the PV industrial chain. The Tobit model is used to conduct an empirical analysis of the factors affecting the efficiency of the PV industry. The results show that the industrial efficiency of PV devices is at a medium level and that it is necessary to strengthen regulation and awareness at the industrial scale. However, the PV power generation industry as a whole is at a low efficiency level, especially the inadequate technical level, which has a negative impact on the improvement of industrial efficiency. Finally, countermeasures and suggestions at the enterprise and government level are put forward to improve the efficiency of the PV industry in China.
Highlights
At present, strategic emerging industries represented by the clean energy industry have developed rapidly under the influence of policy dividends, but the front ends of these industrial chains are mostly characterized by high energy consumption
This report indicated that PV power generation is an excellent low-carbon energy source and that achieving clean production in the PV industry can result in a win–win situation, achieving both environmental protection and cost reduction
The data indicated that the scale utilization of the PV installation industry in China was in an ineffective state; one of the possible explanations is that PV industry policy in China tends to promote the development of power generation, for example, the installed capacity of solar power generation is estimated to reach 110 million kW by 2020.A greatly promoted scale expansion of the PV device industry will follow
Summary
Strategic emerging industries represented by the clean energy industry have developed rapidly under the influence of policy dividends, but the front ends of these industrial chains are mostly characterized by high energy consumption. Ding et al (2016) [32] adopted provincial panel data to point out that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and urbanization rate had a significant positive impact on PV power generation efficiency, where provinces or cities with high levels of economic development were more inclined to increase PV grid-connected power generation. Zhang (2014) [36] used the DEA data envelopment method to select 58 representatives of PV-listed enterprises in China and believed that enterprises needed to improve production efficiency and focused on independent research and development (R&D) capability instead of blindly expanding production scale. Based on the current status of the PV industry in China, this paper uses the DEA method to measure the efficiency of the PV device and power generation industry. We summarize and provide suggestions for the efficient development of the PV industry in China
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