Xinhua Finance, Beijing, December 22 (2025), "Anti-Internal Competition" has become the core consensus and action plan for the photovoltaic industry to get rid of its troubles. After about two years of the tragic price war caused by the overcapacity, the industry has fully entered a period of deep adjustment. From policy guidance to market transformation, from enterprise layout to value creation, from the bottom recovery of the industrial chain price to the continuous deepening of the capacity clearance, the photovoltaic industry is experiencing a transformation from "scale competition" to "quality comparison".

At present, the industry's effectiveness in breaking the vicious cycle has begun to show, but it still faces multiple tests to completely get out of the adjustment period. Several industry insiders who were interviewed by our reporters said that the effectiveness of this battle will depend on the execution of industry self-discipline, the speed of technological innovation breakthroughs, and the improvement of policies and market mechanisms. These three key variables determine whether the photovoltaic industry can truly get out of the adjustment period and move towards a new stage of high-quality development.

From the quagmire of price wars to the consensus against internal competition.

In the past period, the fierce price war caused by overcapacity has plunged the photovoltaic industry into a vicious cycle of "increased volume but no increase in profit", and the profits of the entire industry chain have been extremely compressed. Data from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association shows that in the first three quarters of 2025, enterprises in the main link of the photovoltaic industry chain incurred losses of 31.039 billion CNY, of which the loss in the third quarter was 6.422 billion CNY, a 46.7% narrowing from the second quarter, but the loss situation has not fundamentally improved.

The after effects of the price war are not only reflected in financial data, but also erode the foundation of industry development. Journalists' research shows that when component prices are squeezed to the cash cost line, R&D investment is the first to be cut, technological innovation comes to a standstill, and some product quality declines, burying long-term hidden dangers.

In addition to the internal friction of market competition, systematic bottlenecks in industry development have also become apparent. "The challenges of large-scale and high-proportion access to photovoltaic power and efficient consumption are increasingly prominent," said Gui Xiaoyang, deputy director of the New Energy and Renewable Energy Department of the National Energy Administration, adding that the utilization rate of photovoltaic power nationwide only reached 94.9% from January to October, a decrease of 2.2 percentage points year-on-year, and the pressure of consumption continues to increase.

Wang Bohua, Honorary Chairman of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, described this as "the integration of large-scale photovoltaics poses a challenge to the consumption of the power system." This "consumption wall" has forcibly ended the era of rapid installation growth, making the industry deeply aware that it must shift from pursuing "scale expansion" to "value creation." At the same time, the "Notice on Deepening the Market-oriented Reform of New Energy On-grid Tariffs and Promoting the High-quality Development of New Energy" ("Document No. 136") has promoted the market-oriented transformation of new energy, shifting the investment logic from simple yield calculations under fixed electricity prices to complex evaluations of power market fluctuations, consumption ratios, and comprehensive energy management capabilities, further forcing the industry to bid farewell to extensive development.

In the wake of the pain, "anti-internal competition" has become a collective consensus throughout the industry. The "monocrystalline silicon capacity integration and acquisition platform", which has been brewing in the industry, was officially launched recently, adopting the "debt-taking acquisition + flexible use of capacity" model to promote capacity optimization and inject impetus into the structural reform of the supply side.

At present, the initial effect of the anti-internal competition of silicon materials is showing, and in the future, it is necessary to accelerate the horizontal coordination of silicon wafers, components and other links, and more importantly, to achieve vertical coordination among all links of the industry chain to achieve common profitability. Gao Jifan, chairman of Tonghe Photovoltaic, emphasized to reporters that in the future, the main industry chain needs to produce according to demand. Zhong Baoshen, chairman of Longi Green Energy, said: "The essence of competition should be a competition of technology and quality, not a simple price war. The core is to lead and promote industrial progress through industry standards."

Technology builds barriers; focus on value competition.

For the photovoltaic industry and related enterprises, the "No. 136 Document" has forced enterprises to shift from subsidy-dependent extensive development to value competition that focuses on the cost per unit of electricity and the benefits throughout the entire life cycle. For example, companies such as GCL New Energy and Trina Solar have adjusted their strategies and shifted to "value competition" to adapt to the new rules of market-oriented trading.

The core significance of technological innovation does not lie in the mere pursuit of breakthroughs in technical indicators, but in creating sustainable value for customers. This was stated by Xu Zihan, Deputy General Manager of Overseas Marketing at GCL New Energy, to reporters. In the current period of industry adjustment, companies need to build differentiated competitiveness through technological innovation more than ever. Only by truly implementing technological innovation that generates stable returns for customers can the entire industry ecosystem achieve healthy and sustainable development.

In Xu's view, as N-type technology becomes more widespread, the photovoltaic industry is increasingly demanding refined product performance. "We are optimizing key processes such as thermal field materials and precisely regulating dopant doses to reduce the oxygen content and impurities of silicon wafers while enhancing the concentration of resistivity," Xu told reporters. The core goal of doing so is to enable products to precisely match the "area of optimal comprehensive performance" of different battery technology routes, laying a solid foundation for downstream customers to achieve higher battery power concentration.

Wang Le, technical assistant vice president of Trina Solar, directly pointed out that there is a "short-sightedness" in the evaluation system of the photovoltaic industry. The current evaluation system focuses too much on the "positive power" under standard test conditions (STC), but ignores the actual operation of key indicators such as low irradiation performance and temperature coefficient, and the low irradiation performance of different products can vary by up to 2%, directly affecting the real income of power stations. To this end, Trina Solar proposed to include relevant indicators in the bidding standards, and to promote the industry from "selling components" to "selling solutions".

The regulatory push has further solidified the foundation for the photovoltaic industry to break away from internal competition. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has clarified that by 2026, it will promote the exit of backward production capacity in the photovoltaic industry through market-oriented and legalized means, improve the price monitoring mechanism, and severely crack down on illegal and irregular behaviors such as low prices and false power ratings. At the same time, it will accelerate the formulation and revision of mandatory national standards such as the quality and safety label identification norms for photovoltaic components and the energy consumption limit for multi-crystalline silicon, to lead high-quality development with high-level standards. The National Energy Administration, on the other hand, has promoted the implementation of the "No. 136 Document", accelerating the transformation of new energy from "guaranteeing quantity and price" to "market-driven", and the National Energy Work Conference in 2026 has made it clearer that it is necessary to deepen the construction of the power market, improve the market mechanism that adapts to the new energy system, and provide institutional guarantees for industry transformation. In addition, industry insiders reveal that there is also a possibility of a supporting system on the financial side, promoting the inclusion of enterprise technology advancedness and ESG performance in credit assessment, and curbing irrational expansion from the financing side.

Faced with the complex global trade environment, photovoltaic enterprises need to explore a globalized resilient supply chain to govern "internal entrenchment and external overflow". "Chinese photovoltaic enterprises need to shift from product export to value co-win, and build a more resilient global supply chain," Zhong Baoshen suggested, calling for the improvement of export standards for photovoltaic products to ensure the delivery of efficient and high-quality photovoltaic products to the world.

Three key variables to come out of the adjustment period

The practice of breaking the "anti-involution" situation has achieved initial results. Data from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association shows that since July, the prices of the main industrial chain such as silicon materials have bottomed out and rebounded. The spot price of silicon materials has rebounded from a low of 35,400 CNY/ton to 53,600 CNY/ton. Leading enterprises such as Daqo Energy and GCL Technology turned losses into profits first in the third quarter. Wang Jian, an analyst at TrendForce, judged that the photovoltaic industry has shifted from overall losses to structural profitability, showing a phased inflection point. However, the industry still faces multiple rigid tests in getting out of the adjustment period.

The reporter's research shows that currently, the fragility of the coordination within the photovoltaic industry chain remains a key bottleneck. In the past, the outbreak of price wars was rooted in the mismatch of upstream and downstream capacity expansion and zero - sum games. Although the anti - involution efforts in the silicon material sector have initially shown results, the horizontal coordination in sectors such as silicon wafers and components still needs to be accelerated. To achieve the goal of vertical coordination where all links in the entire industry chain can achieve common profitability, leading enterprises need to demonstrate restraint and foresight in capacity planning and pricing strategies.

The industry believes that the photovoltaic industry will not be able to completely get out of the adjustment period until the implementation results of three key variables are in place.

Lu Jinbiao, a consulting expert of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, directly stated that the first key factor is the implementation of industry self-discipline. The most critical variable for the photovoltaic industry in 2026 is whether enterprises can adhere to self-discipline to reduce production, produce based on sales, and not engage in low-price competition to avoid the "internal folding" rebound.

Secondly, it is the breakthrough speed of technological innovation and the degree of its adaptation to the market. On the one hand, industry enterprises need to continuously invest in research and development to optimize existing technologies and avoid relaxing the intensity of innovation after getting out of losses. On the other hand, it is necessary to promote the precise matching of innovation results with market demand, adapt to the trend of an expanded power peak-valley price spread after the full market entry of new energy, and strengthen the layout of photovoltaic and energy storage integration. Although enterprises such as JinkoSolar expect a significant increase in the target of energy storage product shipments in 2026, the maturity of the photovoltaic and energy storage integrated business model still requires time to polish. How to balance technological investment and short-term profitability tests the long-term vision of enterprises. The industry standard system still needs to be improved. From including low-irradiance performance in the bidding standards to the establishment of internationally recognized quality standards, the entire industry needs to continuously promote these efforts.

Finally, the degree of perfection of policies and market mechanisms. 2026 is a key year for the full marketization of the power industry, and the deepening of the construction of a unified national power market and the widening of the peak-valley price difference will further highlight the clean energy competitiveness of photovoltaics.

Related responsible person of Apsun Energy predicted that the photovoltaic industry is expected to warm up in the second half of 2026. The most fundamental way to clear out the backward capacity is to improve the efficiency and power, eliminate the backward capacity, and the enterprises with efficiency and power advantages in the next one or two years will cross the cycle first. The rhythm and strength of the capacity clearance depend not only on market competition but also on the synergy of policy guidance and industry self-discipline. The operation effect of the polycrystalline silicon capacity integration and acquisition platform and the market-oriented mechanism for the exit of backward capacity will all affect the efficiency of capacity clearance. Wang Bohua said that before the next round of explosive demand comes, the photovoltaic industry urgently needs to complete the transformation to high-quality development to adapt to future demand.

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