On September 25, 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (MIIT) issued further explanation on the Guidelines on Construction of Standard System of Photovoltaic Industry (hereinafter referred to as “the Guidelines”), an important standardization document for the photovoltaic (PV) sector.

The Guidelines are a significant supportive document for the Implementation Plan for the Leading Engineering of Standardization in New Industries (2023-2035)  were issued in August of 2024. There was a round of public consultation in December of 2023 with the draft name the Comprehensive Technical Standardization System for Solar Photovoltaic Industry (hereinafter referred to as “the Draft”). 

The Guidelines contains five chapters with following man contents:

·         Objective: Promote the high-end, intelligent, green and integrated development of the photovoltaic industry. Strengthen the top-level design of standards; strengthen the coordination of standards across the industry chain; increase the supply of advanced standards; improve the effectiveness of standard implementation; promote the internationalization of standards to lead the high-quality development of the photovoltaic industry.

·         General goals: By 2026, the linkage level of standards and industrial scientific and technological innovation will continue to improve, and more than 60 new national standards and sector standards will be formulated to achieve full coverage of basic general standards and key standards in the photovoltaic industry. Encourage social groups to develop advanced association standards. Support Chinese enterprises and institutions to participate in the formulation of more than 20 international standards, and promote the globalization of the photovoltaic sector.

·         Framework and the key fields for constructing the standard system:

* Items mark in red refer to those are modified comparing with the draft for comments.

·         Implementation support: encourage standardization research institutes cultivate and introduce high-level talents and reinforce professional relevant trainings; sector associations and standardization technical organizations are encouraged to guide and help enterprises to benchmark the standard system requirements in links like R&D, design, production, management and testing. 

Comparing with the Draft issued at the end of 2023, the Guidelines adjusted the overall objective with a longer time period (from 2025 to 2026), and a higher quantitative goal (total number of planned standard raises from 40 to 60). The finalized Guidelines also modified the framework of the standard system along with the specific contents under each category listed in the diagram above. 

For foreign stakeholders, the Guidelines is a good reference to understand the potential regulatory changes in the China market for the PV sector. Considering Chinese PV enterprises owns quite the market share worldwide, the potential impacts that may initiated from the PV standard system in China may also be transmitted to the global market to some extent. 

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