Technicians maintain photovoltaic equipment on the rooftop of a house at Chaohu, East China's Anhui Province on November 4. Photo: VCG

China saw strong growth in exports of photovoltaic products in the first 10 months of this year, up 32.3 percent year on year, the Xinhua News Agency cited the China Photovoltaic Industry Association on Saturday.

It is notable that exports of photovoltaic products amounted to $17.74 billion, surpassing the whole volume of 2018, according to the association.

This came after a WTO lawsuit between China and the US concerning the Chinese photovoltaic industry ending with China's win of the appeal in November. 

Industry insiders said the case serves as a reminder that Chinese enterprises should not only actively participate in and abide by international rules, but also play a role in making them. 

Gao Jifan, president of China Photovoltaic Industry Association and chairman of Trina Solar, told the Global Times that this almost eight-year battle in the WTO provided inspiration and valuable experience to hundreds and thousands of Chinese companies when dealing with international trade disputes.

Since 2011, China's photovoltaic industry has faced the biggest nightmare in its history. The industry was submerged under the high "anti-dumping, anti-subsidy" policies of the US, the EU, Canada and other countries.

This situation had not improved until the WTO arbitration body ruled last month in favor of China imposing retaliatory tariffs on about $3.6 billion worth of US goods a year, Fortune reported.

Qian Wenjie, a partner of Gaopeng & Partners, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the case is an important one and the final ruling proves that the US practice does not comply with WTO rules.

A long legal battle 

China's photovoltaic industry boomed in the 1990s, but the global market was still dominated by the EU, the US and Japan. China emerged on the global stage as a latecomer.

In 2007, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a medium-and-long-term development plan for renewable energy with the target of having 300 megawatts of installed solar power capacity by 2010 and 1,800 megawatts by 2020. The photovoltaic industry came into the spotlight.

According to Solarbuzz's study, Chinese companies accounted for four of the top 10 global photovoltaic cell manufacturers in 2008. At that time, China was one of the most important solar photovoltaic industry bases in the world but the core technology remained abroad, the report said.

China's photovoltaic industry saw significant change in the global market in 2012. The world total installed capacity reached a record high of 98.5 gigawatts and the emerging markets, led by China, the US and Japan, accounted for 31 percent of the world's total installed power, according to a 2013 China's photovoltaic industry development report.

"The green energy industry and related technologies are very important for developed countries, and the photovoltaic industry is the focus of competition for all countries," Gao said. 

"Chinese companies have changed the original market pattern, which is unacceptable to the Western countries," Gao added. 

In 2012, the US and the EU launched the first round of photovoltaic product restrictions against China known as "anti-dumping, anti-subsidy," starting a series of attacks against the Chinese photovoltaic industry.

Industrial adjustment

China's photovoltaic industry has suffered major setbacks in 2012, but made two major strategic adjustments afterward. It actively developed the domestic market and it began to actively lay out its business abroad, fundamentally bypassing the European and US restrictions.

"The WTO case has prompted China to accelerate the launch of the domestic photovoltaic market," Han Xiaoping, chief analyst at energy industry website china5e.com, told the Global Times on Friday. "Chinese market is the world's largest, and our power demand, power supply and consumption are the world's first, far exceeding the world's second."

China is taking the lead in photovoltaic development globally with an internationally competitive and complete industrial chain. The country has become the global leader in terms of installed capacity and consumption of renewable energy, with photovoltaic power capacity accounting for one fourth of the world's, a study by Renewable Energy World said.

Total photovoltaic installations in China surpassed 190 gigawatts in the first three quarters while the figure is expected to exceed 200 gigawatts by the end of this year, said Wang Bohua, secretary-general of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, Xinhua reported on Saturday.

By the end of 2020, renewable energy will supply 1.9 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is 27 percent of total power generation, according to the government's 2016-2020 plan for renewable energy, Xinhua noted.

"Now China's photovoltaic industry's efficiency, product quality and the cost have the great competitive edge in the world," Han said.