The Emerging Solar Cell Price War
To date the most popular criticism of solar power is that the technology has been too expensive. But when the forces of innovation, mass production, and rising consumer demand combine, one thing is usually guaranteed: Manufacturers will find new ways to streamline their operating budgets so that they can drive down the cost to the consumer thereby outdoing their competition with other brands. Prior to the Spanish reversal, solar systems were selling for approximately $3.75 to $4.00 per watt of electricity produced, before factoring in installation costs.
Until recently, German made solar cells were regarded as having the highest efficiency and the lowest cost-per-watt of any available on the market. But now, various brands of Asian cells are flooding the market at a cost of $2.25 a watt or less – and all signs indicate that these are clearance prices that have been slashed to make additional inventory space for newer, thinner, higher-efficiency models that are just becoming available. Chinese solar giants like Suntech are beginning to set the standard for solar cell manufacturers around the world.
With competition on this new front, German manufacturers will unlikely be able to compete due to their higher overhead, the bulk of which is made up of labor costs. Q-Cells (Germany’s most well known solar tech manufacturer) has laid off some 500 of its 2500 member workforce. The cuts precipitate the company’s move to manufacture more cheaply made cells at its new plant in Malaysia.
Conversely, First Solar – the leading American solar producer – is enjoying an increase in business, despite having similar overhead costs to its floundering German counterpart: First Solar’s investments in research and development have yielded a cheaper and faster process for getting their products out of the factories, and will be able to pass those savings along to their customers. Using a liquid cadmium compound to convert sunlight into electricity, their innovation is quickly gaining favour over the more traditionally conceived silicon-based solar cell, and can be sold for much lower prices.
The strength of American industrial initiatives and the falling market prices seem likely to speed up the market’s coming consumer ‘critical mass’ that will signify the economical advantages of going green with, or without government subsidy, and the practical, nationwide application of solar power as the rule for energy use – not the exception.
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