This article will examine the causes of the ongoing drop in solar panel prices, its effects on the renewable energy sector, and its benefits for our move towards a greener and more sustainable future.
According to Bloomberg, global solar panel prices are due to come down, the result of prices for thematerial used to make panels falling. Solar prices remained significantly high in 2021 and 2022 due to the high cost of polysilicon, which is a key material used in most panels.
Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, speaks to pv magazine about the current steep trajectory of solar module prices. He estimates that PV panels prices will end up dropping by 40% this year and predicts the closure of old technology and sub-scale solar manufacturing facilities, both in China and globally.
When will solar module prices reach a '$10/w' threshold?
Solar module prices may approach the threshold of $0.10/W by the end of 2024 or eventually in 2025, according to Tim Buckley, director of Australia-based think tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF).
There, Buckley and his colleagues said they estimated solar electricity costs to drop 10% annually for the rest of this decade, halving by 2030. The report also provides detailed information on the operating and planned capacity of the global PV supply chain. This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused.
Will Price pressure increase due to solar capacity increases?
Buckley said price pressure will increase due to the staggering capacity increases announced by the PV industry at the global level, although he questioned a recent forecast by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its recent World Energy Outlook 2023, which claimed thaT the world's cumulative installed solar capacity could reach 2 TW by 2025.
Both are measured on logarithmic scales, and the trend follows a straight line. That means the fall in cost has been exponential. Costs have fallen by around 20% every time the global cumulative capacity doubles. Over four decades, solar power has transformed from one of the most expensive electricity sources to the cheapest in many countries.