Dear TaiyangNews Readers,
Looking back at 2025, it is clear that the past 12 months have been nothing short of a roller-coaster ride for the global solar PV industry. After a record year in 2024 when the world exceeded 2 TW cumulative PV capacity, we are getting very close to the 3 GW level this year, or even meet it, depending on the last months of the year. However, the market wont’t be as big, as hoped for half a year ago, as China’s solar market design change as of June (leading to nearly 100 GW AC installed alone in May), spoiled the party in the second half of the year.
2025 has turned out to be a year of sharp contrasts: record deployments in some markets (e.g. India) alongside intense market stress in others (e.g. European Union, USA). Price and cost pressure defined much of the year, triggered by persistent overcapacity across all segments. While prices improved for manufacturers upstream by around 30% YoY, it hasn’t moved on the downstream level, modules are generally even offered at lower prices compared to the start of the year, according to our TaiyangNews Price Index (see here). That means, supported by Beijing, few poly manufacturers apparently have been able to push prices up, but ongoing consolidation developments hasn’t disciplined the huge fleet of module makers enough yet, a situation aggravated by big inventories.
Continued loss making balance sheets of the big vertically integrated module makers tell you a lot. At the same time, the major companies have been expanding into battery storage, which is seen as the savior by solar companies – both for margins but in a bigger context also to provide the urgently needed flexibility in mature solar markets with notable solar shares in power generation. In our recent TaiyangNews Inverters & Storage online Conference, we had invited leaders in the battery and inverter fields to showcase solutions and discuss solar’s role in an electrifying energy world. For a summary, please check our live-blog here.
Trade actions and protectionist policies kicked in with renewed force, especially in the US under their new administration, but also in India, where protection has helped module manufacturing capacities exceed the 100 GW level, and expansions of policy interventions to cells in 2026 and wafers later also drive local upstream production investments. 2025 could be remembered as the year solar started to go truly local as it has been detected on the radar of policy makers in a world turning increasingly multi-polar.
At the same time, technology continued to move forward at a remarkable speed. TOPCon strengthened its position as the mainstream cell technology – and also improving on the efficiency front, while back contact (BC) architecture advanced steadily, with the first commercial 25% products announced to be mass produced and shipped in 2025. There was also progress in heterojunction (HJT) as was shown during our 4-day flagship event in December, the TaiyangNews High Efficiency Solar Technologies 2025 Conference. We also briefly touched upon perovskite–silicon tandem solar cells, as the technology moves closer to commercialization, shifting the conversation from “if” to “when” as pilot lines are announced in various geographies.
Manufacturing innovation, process optimization, yield improvements remain important themes for the industry. Hybrid systems, with the addition of storage, are now becoming a must-have for a holistic and effective system design.
The year 2025 was also a significant year for Team TaiyangNews as we continued the dialogue on solar with our offline and increasing number of online events, including the following:
Solar Technology Conference India 2025: Dubbed STC.I 2025, it was our 1st physical event in India as it brought together leading Indian solar PV manufacturers under one roof to discuss vertical and horizontal integration in the world’s fastest growing manufacturing hub. For a review summary, please check our live-blog here.
After a successful STC.I 2025, TaiyangNews is coming back with the 2nd edition of the event. STC.I 2026 is scheduled to be held at Aerocity in New Delhi on February 5 and 6, 2026. Registrations are open here. Join in as the Indian PV industry converges once again to discuss scaling and sustaining India’s giga-scale PV manufacturing ecosystem.
SNEC 2025 Solar Leadership Conversations: TaiyangNews continued the association with the world’s largest solar PV show SNEC in 2025. At SNEC PV+ 18th (2025) International Photovoltaic Power Generation and Smart Energy Conference & Exhibition, TaiyangNews once again hosted exclusive interviews with the executive leadership of leading global solar PV manufacturers.
TaiyangNews Leadership Talks: At the Renewable Energy India Expo 2025 (REI 2025), TaiyangNews conducted exclusive interviews with the top leaders of the Indian solar PV manufacturing industry to capture this rapidly advancing market.
TaiyangNews webinars and virtual conferences continued in the online mode, spread out between January and December 2025. The subjects covered span solar cell and module technologies, to equipment, inverters and battery storage, along with sustainability and downstream PV industry.
Market Surveys and Reports
During the year, we continued publishing several new reports and market surveys, available for free download. Take a look at major reports published this year:
TaiyangNews Solar Backsheets & Encapsulants Market Survey 2024/25: Polymer wraps used in module packaging optimized as per needs of latest solar cell technologies
TaiyangNews Cell & Module Technology Trends 2025: Overview of developments associated with 3 mainstream technologies — TOPCon, HJT and BC.
Top Solar Modules H1 – 2025: Overview and analysis of highest efficiency solar panels.
TaiyangNews Market Survey on Solar Cell Production Equipment 2025: The Latest Tools For Solar Cell Processing - For TOPCon & Beyond.
New Solar Modules & Mounting Systems Overview 2025: A compilation of interesting PV panels & racking system solutions on display at the world’s leading solar shows in 2025.
New Cell & Module Production Equipment And Materials 2025 Report: Overview of new cell & module production equipment and process consumables presented at leading global solar shows.
TaiyangNews Report on Balance of System (BOS) Components 2025: Latest product news on inverters, power electronics, energy storage, and software & solutions presented at leading solar trade shows.
We want to thank you for being with us all along. We expect your continued trust, encouragement, and support as we all step into a new year.
Going forward, TaiyangNews will continue to watch the market, but will take it a bit slow. Our newsletters will continue to reach your inbox faithfully, albeit with fewer stories. We will be back fully from January 5, 2026.
Till then, here’s wishing you all happy holidays.
Sincerely,
The TaiyangNews Team