The coronavirus pandemic could heavily impact renewable energy projects across the globe, according to a recent poll conducted by www.power-technology.com.
The poll, which was conducted between 26 March and 23 April, revealed that renewable energy projects will be affected by the coronavirus pandemic because most of the countries are heavily dependent on imports from other regions, mainly China.
Around 47 percent of the respondents participating in the poll believe that there will be a high impact of Covid-19 on renewable energy projects due to import dependency. Around 26 percent of them believe that there will be a moderate impact.
However, 27 percent of the respondents to the poll expect the coronavirus pandemic to have either low impact or no impact on renewable energy projects because of import dependency.
The energy sector is one of the sectors heavily affected by the lockdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The lockdown has resulted in supply chain disruptions, unavailability of manpower, and issues in project financing, which ultimately impact the energy projects.
Countries in the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, the US, and many European countries heavily rely on China for low-cost solar photovoltaic (PV) modules and cells. Suppliers from China alone dominates around 50 percent of the renewable energy component market.
The coronavirus also had its origin in the Chinese city of Wuhan last year, as a result of which production across the nation was halted, which resulted in supply constraints.
Some China-based exporters of solar components are Trina Solar, Yingli, Hanwa, Jinko, and Rene Solar. Chinese wind equipment suppliers such as GE, Siemens, Xinjiang Goldwin, and others also faced similar problems due to the coronavirus pandemic.