China has released the full texts of three mandatory national standards that impose energy consumption and efficiency limits across the photovoltaic manufacturing value chain.
The standards were approved on June 27, published in full on July 22 and will take effect on Jan. 1, 2027. They cover polysilicon and germanium production, monocrystalline silicon manufacturing, and the efficiency of crystalline silicon modules and inverters.
The most significant changes appear in GB 29447-2026, the revised energy consumption standard for polysilicon and germanium production. The final version is stricter than the draft released for public consultation in September 2025.
For polysilicon produced through the trichlorosilane process, which is commonly used to produce rod silicon, the three energy consumption grades are set at 5.0, 5.5 and 6.3 kilograms of standard coal equivalent (kgce) per kilogram of product. The Grade 3 limit, which represents the maximum allowable energy consumption for existing production, has been tightened from 6.4 kgce/kg in the consultation draft.
For silane fluidized-bed production, used primarily to manufacture granular silicon, the Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3 limits are 3.6, 4.0 and 4.6 kgce/kg, respectively. The final Grade 3 threshold is significantly lower than the proposed 5.0 kgce/kg.
The standard also tightens accounting rules for externally sourced silicon cores and hydrogen, reducing the scope for producers to lower reported energy consumption through differences in calculation boundaries.
The revisions exceeded earlier market expectations because much of China’s existing rod silicon capacity reportedly operates within a narrow range of 6.3 to 6.4 kgce/kg. An industry estimate cited after a standards implementation meeting suggested that around 84% of capacity could meet the draft 6.4 kgce/kg threshold, but only about 45% could comply with the final 6.3 kgce/kg limit.
The estimate is not an official assessment of production capacity and does not mean that all non-compliant facilities will immediately cease operations. Producers may improve performance through measures such as heat recovery, process optimization, higher operating rates or other technical upgrades.
Brokerage estimates nevertheless suggest that the standard could reduce China’s compliant polysilicon capacity from around 3.5 million tonnes to less than 2 million tonnes. That would remove more than 1.5 million tonnes from the compliant capacity pool, compared with estimated demand of about 1.5 million tonnes in 2027.
The immediate impact on supply may be more limited. Much of the higher-energy production capacity is already idle, while operating polysilicon capacity stood at around 1.3 million tonnes during the first half of 2026.
The other two standards extend the mandatory framework further downstream. GB 47835-2026 sets energy consumption limits for crystal pulling and wafer slicing, while GB 47834-2026 establishes minimum efficiency requirements for crystalline silicon modules and inverters. Products that fail to meet the Grade 3 requirements for modules and inverters will not be permitted to be manufactured, imported or sold in China.
Together, the new standards shift China’s campaign against PV overcapacity from voluntary production discipline toward binding technical regulation.
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