If anyone thought that the New Year would bring price relief and supply loosening on the crystalline solar module/ solar cell side, fuggetaboutit! The most recent forecasts for solar power industry show a 5% projected annual in 2006, after consistent 25%+ years for as long as I can remember.
In a recent article published in Renewable Energy Access you can read all you’d hate to about the shortages which will become more acute in this coming year and into 2007, with relief only foreseable in 2008.
This does not bode well for retailers that have on-time delivery demands nor consumers who are ordering online only to find their products shipped months later. The fact is that given a choice, the solar panel vendors will ship the large contracts (which have substantial penalties associated with them) rather than a pallet to their local retailer.
So for the next two years, get what you can and count your lucky stars you got it! Locking in with a solar vendor is the best you can do to make yourself a priority, but even then, you’ll have to be more patient than usual if deliveries are somewhat late.
Oh, and did I forget to mention that prices are likely to increase in March again due to these shortages? Remember this a commodity market which is beyond control.
OK, so not the best news blog entry on solar power that I’ve ever written, but it is what it is…
Sass Peress