aluminium expo |Aluminium demand from PV industry to reach nearly 4.6 million tonnes by 2024

In recent years, with the increasing aluminium production in China, expanding aluminium applications has been a hot topic in the aluminium industry. Automotive, packaging, white goods, consumer electronics, photovoltaic and wire and cable as the main downstream industries of the non-ferrous metal industry, its demand directly affects the future development of the non-ferrous metal industry.

According to aluminium expo, domestic PV installed capacity is growing at a high rate. in the first half of 2023, the country's PV new grid-connected 78.42 million kilowatts, an increase of 154% year-on-year. By the end of June 2023, the national PV power generation installed capacity reached 470 million kilowatts, PV power generation 266.3 billion kilowatt hours, an increase of 30%.

The demand for aluminium in the photovoltaic industry mainly comes from PV module frames, and the market penetration rate of aluminium frames in PV module frames reaches 96% at this stage. According to SMM's data, according to the aluminium consumption of 0.6 million tons / GW, in 2023, the PV module frame consumption of aluminium is about 1.98 million tons.

Not only that, distributed photovoltaic power station is also gradually penetrate into the aluminium enterprises. 17 May, Yunnan Yun Aluminum 180MW distributed photovoltaic project and put into operation. On 29th June, Inner Mongolia Jinlian Aluminum Co., Ltd. 80 MW composite photovoltaic project was connected to the grid at full capacity. It can be seen that the photovoltaic industry and the aluminium production industry are complementary to each other.

By 2040, aluminium demand in the photovoltaic industry will reach almost 4.6 million tonnes. If warming needs to be kept below 1.5°C, aluminium demand will reach 10 million tonnes. The share of aluminium demand in the photovoltaic industry in total aluminium consumption will then increase from 3% to 12.6%. Copper consumption will also increase significantly. On the other hand, in 2020, copper demand for the photovoltaic industry will be around 400,000 tonnes, and is expected to rise to almost 700,000 tonnes by 2040.

At the same time, aluminium and copper are energy-intensive industries, and photovoltaic power can decarbonise electricity generation. If the scale is further expanded, it is also a virtuous circle between the energy and power industries.