PVTIME – On 28 March at 2.20pm, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar. It was 30 kilometres deep. The tremors were strongly felt in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, and Yangon, its largest city.
In the last two years, there has been a lot of growth in the solar and energy storage industries in Myanmar because of a big shortage of power. Sadly, many of these installations have now been destroyed by the earthquake. The earthquake will also cause some damage to Myanmar’s power infrastructure. It’s sad to think that the power gap in Myanmar may get worse in the future.
This earthquake has had a big effect on the main western areas of China where silicon rods for solar panels are made. Yunnan in China also experienced strong tremors. The areas of Yunnan and Yibin were hit relatively hard. Some local silicon material manufacturers have had problems, like smothering pots, broken rods and furnace explosions, which might affect how they operate in future. The earthquake has also affected some PV production areas in Yinchuan and Inner Mongolia of China. At the moment, the main impact in other areas is that people have lost power, but it is expected that normal operations can be restored in the short term.
We hope everyone affected gets better soon.
