2026 marks a dramatic upheaval in the photovoltaic industry! Farewell to low-price involution; three major signals indicate that the industry is embracing a new golden cycle.

Halfway through 2026, the PV industry has finally shed its old labels of “low-price competition and overcapacity”, ushering in disruptive industry reshuffling and structural restructuring. Over the past two years, the PV market was plagued by chaos: frequent low-price scams, disorderly elimination of small and medium-sized manufacturers, continuous pitfalls for rural households installing PV systems, and industrial chain profits squeezed to a freezing point, trapping the entire industry in a vicious cycle of “losing money the more it produces”.

But entering May, three major signals from policies, technologies and markets have erupted simultaneously, completely breaking the industry deadlock. This is not a simple market recovery, but a crucial inflection point for the PV industry to shift from “wild growth” to high-quality development and value priority. Ordinary people, rural households and practitioners must see clearly this new trend, seize the real dividends and avoid the last traps.

I. Policy relaxation is not “flooding the market”, but eliminating chaos; the formal market ushers in great liberation

Many people think the new PV policies only ease grid-connection restrictions, but in fact it is a key step for the industry to “heal deeply”. The previous rigid 80% transformer capacity limit for distributed PV, seemingly regulating the market, actually choked the development of formal residential and commercial PV installations. Instead, it created opportunities for scam companies — under the pretext of “free installation and high rent”, they exploited policy loopholes with inferior products to defraud rural households and small and micro enterprises.

The new policies to be implemented in June 2026 will cancel rigid capacity limits and implement dynamic assessment plus three-color zoning management. The core logic is never to liberalize capacity, but “survival of the fittest”: projects in green zones will be approved and connected immediately, enabling formal manufacturers and high-quality projects to connect to the grid rapidly; yellow and red zones will force power grid upgrades, while completely blocking the living space for inferior products and scam projects.

This means that in the future, the PV market will no longer be “whoever offers the lowest price wins”, but only those with complete qualifications, good products and stable services can gain a foothold. Residential PV has finally bid farewell to the vicious competition of “low price and inferior quality”. Rural households no longer need to struggle over “a few hundred yuan price difference”, because risks such as water leakage, electric leakage and lost after-sales service caused by inferior PV are far more terrible than the price gap. The new policies release not overcapacity, but long-suppressed formal installation demand. It is conservatively estimated that there will be more than 50GW of new compliant installations throughout the year — this is the real industry dividend.

II. Technology iteration abandons “gimmicks”; N-type fully lands, and perovskite opens up future space

The core competitiveness of the PV industry has never been price wars, but hard technological strength. In 2026, PV technology has completely bid farewell to gimmick marketing with “superficial changes” and ushered in substantial breakthroughs:

On the one hand, N-type TOPCon modules have fully replaced P-type ones and become the mainstream of the market. In the past, P-type modules suffered from low efficiency and fast attenuation; low-cost products saw a sharp decline in power generation after two or three years of use, leaving rural households unable to earn money from PV installations. In contrast, N-type modules have achieved a conversion efficiency of over 25%, with stronger low-light power generation performance, showing obvious advantages in rural rooftops and rainy days. Their power generation over the service life is more than 15% higher than that of P-type modules, truly realizing “stable income growth from PV installation”. Meanwhile, mass production of “silver-free” technologies has further reduced module costs, making high-quality N-type modules more affordable, completely ending the situation of “high quality with high price, low price with inferior quality”.

On the other hand, the efficiency of perovskite tandem cells has broken through 26.34%, setting a new world record. No longer just a laboratory concept, it is gradually moving toward industrialization. This technological breakthrough means huge room for further improvement in PV module efficiency in the future, lifting the return on investment of PV power stations to a higher level and completely breaking the prejudice that “PV returns have peaked”.

It can be said that 2026 is the first year of value regression for PV technology. The industry has finally shifted from “competing on price” to “competing on technology and quality”, which is the core foundation for the long-term development of the PV industry.

III. Overseas market surges + domestic demand rebounds; industrial chain stabilizes, ending losses

Over the past two years, PV industrial chain prices plummeted, with silicon material and module prices falling all the way. Upstream manufacturers suffered losses, downstream installers cut corners, and the whole industry fell into a vicious cycle. But in May 2026, this situation has been completely reversed:

Overseas markets have become a strong support, with intensive GW-level large orders signed in the Middle East, India, Australia and other regions. Relying on technological and capacity advantages, Chinese PV modules occupy more than 70% of the global market share. Leading enterprises such as Jinko Solar and JA Solar have successively won large overseas orders, and module exports have increased sharply month-on-month, fully digesting domestic high-quality overcapacity.

In the domestic market, with the implementation of new policies and rising public awareness of green electricity, demand for residential and commercial PV installations has exploded. Industrial chain scheduling has rebounded significantly, silicon material and module prices have stopped falling and stabilized, profits of leading enterprises have gradually recovered, small and inferior manufacturers have accelerated withdrawal, industry concentration has risen sharply, with the top 5 enterprises (CR5) occupying over 75% of the market share, and industry order has been fully standardized.

This means that the PV industrial chain has finally emerged from the quagmire of “low-price involution” and returned to a reasonable profit range. Downstream installers no longer need to grab orders at low prices, rural households can purchase reliable products with formal after-sales service, and the whole industry has formed a new ecosystem of “high quality with reasonable price and virtuous cycle”.

For ordinary people and rural households: avoid these 3 pitfalls when installing PV in 2026

As the industry recovers and dividends emerge, scams still exist. Friends planning to install PV must keep in mind:

1. Reject schemes of zero down payment, free installation and high rent. There is no free lunch in the world. Most such contracts contain hidden traps, leading to reduced rent and no way to safeguard rights later;
2. Choose formal N-type modules and do not covet low-price inferior products. Cheap PV systems generate low power and have frequent failures, becoming useless decorations in a few years and causing losses instead;
3. Select formal local companies with qualifications and after-sales service, sign standard contracts, clarify power generation, warranty period and after-sales responsibilities to avoid losing contact later.

Conclusion

In 2026, the PV industry has truly changed. It bids farewell to the chaos of wild growth and bottomless price wars, ushering in a new golden cycle of standardized policies, leading technologies and a sound market. This is not only an inflection point for the industry, but also a window for ordinary people to seize the dividends of green electricity.
In the future, PV will no longer be a “synonym for scams”, but a high-quality project that can truly bring stable income to rural households, reduce electricity costs for enterprises and provide green energy for the country. Seeing the trend clearly and choosing the right products will allow you to truly enjoy the dividends of industry development in this new PV cycle.

The golden age of the photovoltaic industry has just begun!

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