Wow, Did Anyone See This Coming? Do Any Dots Connect To The Trump Tariffs? -- June 7, 2018 -- Words That Make Me Tingle When Seen In One Sentence: Solar, Slashed, Surprise

From oilprice.com:

Market researchers are in a rush to lower their solar capacity addition forecasts for this year after China surprised everyone by announcing it will not issue approvals for any new solar power installations this year and will also cut the feed-in tariff subsidy that has been a major driver of the solar business in the country that accounts for as much as 50 percent of capacity.

Reuters reports that companies including IHS Markit and Wood Mackenzie have already revised their solar additions forecasts for the year.

IHS analysts slashed their projections by between 5 and 10 GW of new additions, although in China alone, they saw a potential reduction in new solar capacity of up to 17 GW. Earlier this year, the firm had forecast Chinese solar capacity additions of 53 GW.

Wood Mackenzie, for its part, expects new Chinese solar capacity to be 20 GW lower than earlier forecast, which was 50 GW.

GMT Research also reduced its China new solar capacity additions forecast by as much as 40 percent to 28.8 GW, with one analyst saying, “When the industry talks about China, it’s always about how demand in the region exceeds expectations. That is not going to be the case anymore.”

This is not rocket science. I don't know if anyone saw this coming -- I did not -- but the timing is interesting.