China’s new set of PV rules are expected to “do a good job in cutting out low-cost, outdated technology across the value chain”, according to PV Tech Research.
China will introduce updated nationwide standards for its photovoltaic industry beginning on the first day of 2027, with the new regulations designed to eliminate PV modules rated below 630W as well as traditional polysilicon products from the market.
Joe Hennessy, an analyst at PV Tech Research and co-author of the report, said the measures are noteworthy because they indicate the Chinese government now recognizes the need to address excess supply, which may be linked to weaker deployment levels across China during the first half of the year. “These new restrictions are very interesting as the Chinese government now sees a need to stop the oversupply, maybe coming from lowered deployment in China in the first half of the year,” he explained.
Hennessy added that the impact will be felt most strongly by smaller manufacturers because they are less likely to have modernized their production lines during the period of financial losses. Larger module producers, by comparison, have already commercialized TOPCon products whose efficiencies are approaching the 24% Grade 1 benchmark, while recently announced modules are nearing the 25% level. “This will affect the smaller producers the most, as they are less likely to have upgraded lines during the period of losses. Most of the larger module suppliers already have commercial TOPCon products with efficiency trending towards that 24% Grade 1 boundary, with module announcements closer to 25%,” Hennessy added.
As Hennessy also pointed out, the updated standards introduce minimum efficiency requirements for market entry covering both p-type PERC technology and the three n-type module categories: TOPCon, heterojunction and back contact (BC). Under the new framework, the Grade 1 efficiency threshold is fixed at 24% for TOPCon modules, 23.8% for HJT modules and 24.2% for BC modules.
The revised standards also establish a three-tier energy-efficiency classification system for PV inverters. In addition, authorities have introduced a new energy consumption threshold for polysilicon manufacturing that is intended to remove older production capacity with high energy usage.
As a result of these policy changes, PV Tech Research expects Chinese polysilicon manufacturers to devote the remainder of the year to improving the efficiency of their production lines. Similar efforts to curb output are also anticipated across the wafer, cell and module segments of the supply chain. The research group believes these actions will reduce China’s share of global production, while India and the United States are both expected to continue expanding their domestic annual nameplate manufacturing capacity for modules and cells.
Earlier this week, Moustafa Ramadan, head of PV Tech Research, published an article examining how companies can navigate the current US solar cell supply environment in light of existing policy measures and tariff restrictions.
The ‘PV ModuleTech Bankability Ratings Quarterly’ report is available here.
Originally reported by PV Tech on Jul 20, 2026.
