The Reason For The Fall In Price Of Solar Panels

The cost of building new solar projects is now almost the same as the cost of operating coal fired power plants that are already up and running at an average of 35 mwh.

The reason for the fall in price of solar panels.

To raise cash and stay afloat manufacturers rushed to sell off inventory and diverted sales offshore sending prices into a downward spiral. Tariffs on imported solar products and the rising cost of finding customers slowed the price decline and flattened growth leaving installers policymakers and utilities asking if the price will. Wood mackenzie forecasts that spot prices for modules could fall from 0 30 per watt dc to 0 18 per watt dc in the next five years a 40 percent drop. Back in 1977 the price of solar photovoltaic cells was 77 for just one watt of power.

This raises the question of which factors can help continue the cost decline trancik says. Today it s around 0 13 per watt or about 600 times less. Solar panels will continue to decline in price in the 2020s the sun is set to shine on solar energy. 2006 the combination of a recession and a silicon shortage force prices to stabilize for a few years.

The cost has generally been following swanson s law which states that the price of solar drops by 20 for every doubling of shipped product. For about the last decade however the largest single high level factor in the continuing cost decline has been economies of scale as solar cell and module manufacturing plants have become ever larger. As the clean electricity source surges in popularity it s seen a reduction in prices. It was a windfall for solar power generators and investors in solar farms as prices for panels as measured in cost per watt they generate dropped by 25 to 30.

This represents a massive 9x drop in the price of solar panels since 2006. And r d is only part of the equation. Analysts predict that prices could fall below 0 20 per watt by 2040.