As the US imposition of anti-dumping tariffs on PV products imported from China and Taiwan is expected to cripple the competitiveness of makers from the two countries, a few PV makers in the US and other countries plan to expand production capacities mainly for the US market, according to industry sources in Taiwan.
US-based SunPower plans to expand its annual capacity by 700MWp; US-based SolarCity will expand capacity through merging with Silevo; South Korea-based Q-Cells plans to increase capacities in Malaysia and Germany to expand its global capacity from 1.1GWp currently to 1.5GWp; and Norway-based REC plans to expand capacity at its factory in Singapore, the sources indicated. In addition, small solar cell makers in Malaysia will reportedly expand capacities, the sources said.
PV demand in the US market is estimated at 6GWp in 2014 and expected to increase to 9GWp in 2015, the sources noted.
