Analyst Blog
New Arrivals to the PV Inverter Market
11 April 2012
Inverter shipments reached an almost unbelievable 26 GW in 2011, according to preliminary results from IMS Research’s Quarterly PV Inverter Tracker. This impressive result for inverter shipments in 2011, which was an increase of 10 percent over 2010, came despite the large inventory overhang from the previous year.
However, although the industry saw a healthy increase in shipments, manufacturers were forced to make steep price discounts, particularly in Germany and especially for string inverters. This resulted in zero revenue growth for the industry in U.S. dollars and a slight drop in
PV Module Costs and Prices – What is Really Happening Now!?
03 February 2012
PV-Tech recently announced that its most read blog post of 2011 was an article from IMS Research entitled ‘PV Module Costs and Prices – What is Really Happening’ almost 18 months ago in August 2010 - over 4 months before 2011 had even started. This itself clearly says something about what the PV industry was talking about throughout all of last year, and still will be talking about in 2012.
Looking back now at the article I thought it would be interesting to revisit some of the predictions made versus reality, and what the future holds 12 months on.
Why Didn’t the PV Industry See 2011’s
UK Government on Solar Back Foot - Tariff Confusion continues
26 January 2012
The UK’s High Court today declared the Governments cuts to feed-in tariffs (FiTs) paid to owners of solar Photovoltaic (PV) systems illegal and reversed the cuts to payments to their original levels. This latest development is likely to cause further confusion amongst the industry and prevent homeowners and businesses from fully understanding the potential risks and rewards of installing their own solar PV systems.
When the UK’s FiT was first introduced in early 2010, it led to a slow, but steady increase in the number of PV systems being deployed in the country. The FiT payments
Could PV Installations Really Have Reached 26 GW in 2011?
16 January 2012
The simple answer is yes. Certainly enough modules and inverters were sold, and if installations really did hit 7.5 GW in Germany then this would undoubtedly mean that at least 26 GW was installed globally last year, with Germany retaining its position as the largest market, followed closely by Italy. We’re still finalising our data for 2011, but we now estimate up to 26.5 GW could have been installed last year following the phenomenal year-end rally in Germany. This would have meant an incredible 10 GW was installed in the last quarter of the year – the first time this has ever happened and
UK PV Module Price Watch - Supply Chain Prices Respond to Feed-in Tariff Chaos
11 January 2012
This article is a preview of a bi-monthly report that will be published in Solar Business Focus UK. Please click here for more information on this magazine.
Supply Chain Prices Respond to Feed-in Tariff Chaos
Although the UK saw record demand for PV modules up until the December 12th Feed-in tariff cut, on average December saw module prices in the UK decline in response to the heavy cuts that took place, albeit temporarily. Although the high court ruled that the changes to tariff were unlawful just over a week later and reversed the cuts; confusion over what the decision means for the
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