The Chinese Photovoltaic Industry

With all the controversy about Chinese milk, etc. I decided to put this blog about the Chinese PV industry highlighting my experience dealing with them in the Solar industry.

The company I was working for had a subcontractor in Shenzhen. Our company made the cells, they assembled these into modules (aka panels). Getting to Shenzhen wasn't really a problem. I remember filling out the application early in the week then getting it by Friday. There appears to be an atmosphere of wanting people to come in. I got a 2 entry F visa good for 3 months. There was another occasion where I had to go to Shenzhen at short notice with out any visa. Taking a van from HK, I go to the border at Huanggang. The visa office can issue you a 7 day L visa for about 400RMB (if my memory serves me right). They can also issue you a 40 day visa. I brought my own picture but they can take your picture there also. My friend gets his visa at Luohu (Lowu in Cantonese) accessible from HK by commuter train at East Tsim Sha Tsui. If you intend to go somewhere else, you can get your visa at these border stations, take the train from Luohu or the plane at Bao-an airport.

Our subcontractor was located in the Longgang district of Shenzhen. The factory was a 2 floor operation with an a company of workers. Solar cells were soldered by hand. Our cells were thin so they kept on breaking a lot of them until they learned how to handle them correctly. The paper trail was confusing, process control was a mess. I was tasked to work on the testing area, where I found the lack of temperature controls which led to the underating of our modules. My colleague was working on lamination issues, and he found issues like water contamination during glass washing ( yes glass gets washed before cells are laminated on to it).

Factory management was also struggling personnel issues. High turnover translated to workmanship issues when replacement workers came. There was the language problem. Management also had communication issues with workers. Despite of all this, I found the Chinese worker industrious and helpful if he/she understood what you were trying to do. Things got better when they hired a Six Sigma Black Belt for a Quality director. My Shenzhen based colleague was able to work joyfully for a change.

Its is a principle that you get what you pay for. If you want to pay cheap, be prepared to invest more sweat into it. You actually pay more eventually by paying less initially. Chinese labor is definitely cheap but the juggernaut attached. We had to deal with modules that were under rated , delaminating or shorted/shunted. Someone once said that people don't care about quality anymore. I beg to disagree. If you're paying for a $750 PV module or a $20,000 car, there'd better be high quality in it.

What does the Philippines do when countries like China and Vietnam siphon labor intensive industries? We adapt! Our industries should move towards automated, high value portions of the supply chain. If we used to assemble, now we ought to fabricate. We now have Sunpower and Solaria fabrication plants. I just talked to a local thin film PV developer who's also starting up. We should also move to knowledge based industries. While call centers are good we should move to technology/software design services.

In summary, we are faced with a choice. We can either whine about other countries taking over our turf or adapt and survive. First we need to Outlive (our comfort zones)...Outpray...Overcome. Then we begin to Outwit...Outplay...Outlast!