Bloomberg: Panel production capacity has exceeded the 1 TW milestone
In a recent presentation, BloombergNEF (BNEF) said that annual solar panel production capacity has now surpassed one terawatt (1 TW), a number that seemed unattainable for the industry just a few years ago.
Top 10 Panel Manufacturers
The top four panel manufacturers with annual capacity of over 100 GW are LONgi, Jinko Solar, Trina Solar and JA Solar. The production capacity of panel manufacturers that meet the Tier-1 criteria according to BloombergNEF as of Q1 2026 is approximately 1,005 GW per year.
The ranking of the largest panel manufacturers below clearly confirms that the market is dominated by Chinese companies or companies closely linked to the Chinese industrial ecosystem. The world’s leading panel manufacturers with the largest production capacity include:
Longi: 120 GW
Jinko Solar: 120 GW
Trina Solar: 100 GW
YES Solar: 100 GW
Tongwei/TW Solar: 85 GW
Canadian Solar: 61 GW
Chint/Astroenergy: 56 GW
Increased Energy: 48 GW
Aiko Solar: 35.5 GW
GCL System Integration: 29.5 GW
Rapid Growth Brings Big Challenges
The above statistics give us a sense of how rapidly the solar energy industry has grown over the past five years. To put that in perspective, less than a decade ago, a 10 GW manufacturer was considered one of the global leaders. Today, several leading companies exceed 100 GW per year.
However, the rapid growth of production capacity has been outstripping global demand for several years (around 650-690 GW last year). This development is causing significant problems for the industry, leading to extreme pressure on prices, shrinking margins, and many manufacturers have been operating at a loss in the past.
The result of this fierce competition is the impending consolidation of the industry, which poses significant financial risks for medium-sized and small panel manufacturers. In other words: the industry is producing far more than the market can currently absorb. And this must change.