The electricity industry and energy intensives join forces to boost Europe’s industrial competitiveness in a net-zero economy.
C&I solar modules with power classes 450-500 W were in short supply in March, driving average monofacial prices up from 0.124 to 0.129 EUR/ W. The increase was despite sluggish need for residential PV modules, with full black modules recording another slight price drop. Despite this moderate price rebound, the buyers remained bullish about the demand in the upcoming month.
Engin Yaman, Managing Director of LONGi Germany, on current market developments, the security of supply chains and price developments, the discussion on Chinese price dumping and the business strategy for Europe and Germany.
Solar modules are becoming cheaper and cheaper. This applies to both standard and efficient modules. The expected stabilisation has failed to materialise or is at least a long time coming.
Average trading PV module prices were at 0.124 EUR/W across Europe in February both for bifacial and monofacial modules. PV PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) score increased from 68 in January to 73 in February, underlining strong demand. Major market players expect manufacturing overcapacity to persist.
Solar wholesalers are in a problematic situation again due to very expensive stock and slumping prices. An analysis and outlook from our guest author Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar.
Module prices continue to fall, but not as fast as in the past weeks. There are signs that the downward slide is slowly coming to an end. Because at the current prices, no one is earning anything.
LevelTen Energy released its latest PPA Price Index report, which shows that in Q3 2023, the blended index of wind and solar 25th Percentile (P25) PPA prices increased a modest 2% across Europe. But there were some important exceptions and stability may not last long.
Due to the continuously dropping prices of modules, much of the solar power sector is living exciting times. "We are again in a similar situation to how it was before covid," says Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar. "Only now the industry is made up of 50 to 60 percent new people, who have never experienced this before."
Record-low prices of solar imports risk damaging the EU’s open strategic autonomy goals, SolarPower Europe warns today in a letter to the European Commission.
One man's sorrow is another man's joy: module prices are continuing to fall. This is good for planners and installers. But wholesalers are coming under even greater pressure.
The general expectation was that once China came out of the last lockdown, the Chinese economy would pick up again and take the global economy with it on the way up. Nothing could be further from the truth. The results are so disappointing that the Chinese government no longer even makes all data public. This also affects the solar energy sector, according to Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar.
The PV market in Europe and Poland has experienced significant fluctuations in prices in 2023. Marta Walendzewicz, Board Member of Menlo Electric, explores the availability of photovoltaic panels, trends, and challenges in the Polish photovoltaic market and the importance of choosing the right inverter.
The lack of recovery of the Chinese economy is causing a decline in demand for raw materials and solar cells, wafers and panels. Where producers and manufacturers were previously able to make mutual agreements to support prices, demand has now fallen to such an extent that prices have completely fallen through the ice. "There really seems to be complete panic," says Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar.
The market prices of solar cells, wafers and panels currently follow the same pattern as energy prices. "The prices are 7 to 8 euro cents per watt peak lower than a year ago, why wait any longer", asks Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar.
Although Chinese exports of solar panels have increased significantly, the price of silicon continues to drop steadily. The Chinese economy is slowly picking up again after all the lockdowns and the slow restart, but fear for a recession fear is still holding back a real price recovery, concludes Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar.
Intilion is equipping three Telekom data centres with its large-scale storage systems with a total capacity of around 60 MWh at the sites in Bamberg, Hanover and Münster.
Due to artificial silicon price increase of the Chinese producers, Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar, sees the solar module price returning to the 'old normal' of about 0.25 euros per watt peak.
Transport costs, polysilicon and solar panel prices dropped sharply the last weeks. But it will not stay like this, Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar, says.
The falling transport costs have continued in the past month, mainly due to a spectacular drop in the container price. "That can save one and a half to two euro cents per watt peak, which is quite nice," notes Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar.
Last week it was reported that the ABN AMRO Transition Commodity Price Index had fallen by 22 percent in the 21 weeks leading up to it. That doesn’t seem to match with the stories about the ever-rising prices of Chinese polysilicon, but that too has stabilized. Even if it is artificial, our guest author Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar explains: "They just capped the price."
Economic growth in China slowed substantially. The solar energy sector is likewise also suffering from the problems that seem to be becoming increasingly structural, according to our guest author Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar.
Technological progress in renewables could revolutionise global energy use. While electricity has so far covered only one fifth of the world's energy needs, green power could actually account for three quarters in the long term if climate policy is consistent.
BloombergNEF’s annual battery price survey finds prices fell 6% from 2020 to 2021, but rising commodity prices start to bite.
Driven by the strong supply dependencies that have become apparent as a result of the Corona pandemic and by political tailwinds, there are first concrete steps for a return of PV manufacturing to Europe.
