News Article
A Rock And A Hard Place
Solar manufacturers squeezed between rising silicon costs and falling cell prices
Makers of solar cells are under severe pressure with the spot price of cells at an all-time low at the same time as prices for solar-grade polysilicon and wafers have been increasing.
The prices charged for solar-grade polysilicon and wafers continued to increase in March 2011. Cuts in subsidy support on 1 January across major European markets, in the form of lower feed-in tariffs for solar electricity, are putting downward pressure on the prices of finished photovoltaic modules. Because of limited supply, the price of silicon is not falling - in fact it is rising.
The latest Bloomberg New Energy Finance Solar Value Chain Index, just published, the average spot price of polysilicon reached $79/kg in March 2011, the highest since May 2009 when the Index began. The price of polysilicon in China is higher than in the rest of the world, due to import restrictions and limited domestic supply.
The price of wafers also increased, with 6" multicrystalline silicon wafer prices reported at $3.62/piece on average in March, up 3% from February. Multi-crystalline silicon cell prices however were on average at $1.25 per Watt in March 2011, down 9.4% from December 2010.
The dollar price of modules (or panels) has dropped by almost 7% since December 2010, despite the strengthening euro, the currency of the world's largest photovoltaic markets. The March results of the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Module Price Index show an average factory gate price across all markets for immediate delivery of $1.88/W for crystalline silicon modules. Although this is down since December, it is above the market's previous expectations.
"The global demand for PV modules continues to be very strong, mainly driven by anticipation of further tariff cuts in Italy, Germany, Slovakia and the rest of the European PV markets," says Martin Simonek, analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance. "The first half of 2011 will see relatively small declines in module prices, despite the pressure from developers, because of supply bottlenecks upstream."
