In efforts to stop the spread of the Coronavirus across its worker base, Chinese factories have been closed for almost a month, large gatherings have been banned and travel curtailed – and the knock-on effect has been felt across the world.

It was reported yesterday, however, that the Chinese government has been urging officials to “reach goals and tasks of economic and social development,” while at the same time, keeping the mandate to reduce infections at all costs in place. As a result, businesses are reopening, albeit with a reduced workforce and challenged and depleted supply chains. To deal with labour shortages, authorities are promoting ‘employee-sharing’ whereby employees from firms which have not yet opened are ‘shared’ – in one case, utilising staff from a film studio to work on a production line in a lighting factory. Across Europe, the impact of the virus has been felt as well, with almost half saying they would likely re-look at their financial outlooks for the first six months of 2020. Nearly a third of American company’s report being similarly affected. In the energy sector, the impacts have been felt across the global solar PV supply chain, across energy storage, in certain oil and gas-related sectors while numerous industry events have been cancelled, postponed or poorly attended.

Impact on renewable energy

Production delays for both wind turbines and solar panels will be felt throughout the year, as production delays impact supply chains and order fulfilment. In addition, it is anticipated that the impact on China’s residential renewable market will be significant, with Wood Mackenzie anticipating a decrease of as much as 50% in turbine installations in that country. It is further anticipated that as much as 6GW of wind power capacity in the US could be impacted by the virus this year. […]