Prices for Chinese Photovoltaics are Dropping Radically

Solar Panel Makers Face ‘Disaster’ as Prices Drop: Chart of Day
2009-04-23 23:01:02.0 GMT


By Rachel Graham
April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Prices for solar panels may decline more than 40 percent by the end of the year, putting some manufacturers out of business, New Energy Finance said.

The CHART OF THE DAY http://bluejacket7.co... shows U.S. prices started to fall in January as last year’s drop in Chinese factory prices began filtering down to the retail market. Chinese prices have dropped as global supply has grown.

Retail prices could fall to about $2.70 a watt from about $4.74 as of March, Jenny Chase, head of solar research at New Energy Finance in London said by telephone.

“For the panel industry this is challenging,” Chase, who uses Solarbuzz data for historical prices, said. “For about half of manufacturers this is a disaster.”

Global panel production rose to 5.9 gigawatts in 2008, compared with 2.9 gigawatts the previous year, according to New Energy Finance, a renewable energy and carbon research company. Supply could rise to up to 10.8 gigawatts this year depending on whether producers halt production, Chase said.

U.S. prices are used as a proxy for European prices, where fluctuations in subsidies can make prices volatile. Spain and Germany have the most installed solar capacity, according to the European Photovoltaic Industry Association.

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--Editors: Will Kennedy, Stephen Cunningham.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Rachel Graham in London +44-20-7073-3184 or
rgraham13@bloomberg.net

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Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net