The supply chain snarl that tripled the price of a key raw material for solar panels is about to get fixed, clearing the way for a renewed boom in the use of the clean energy technology.
The multi-billion-dollar expansion of polysilicon capacity will “help to remove a key bottleneck to the solar value chain,” said Tony Fei, an analyst with BOCI Research. “We expect solar panel supply to be vastly boosted in the coming years with declining prices, contributing to decarbonisation of the global energy mix.”
“Polysilicon prices will remain elevated in the first half of 2022 and then nosedive to a historic low in 2023,” said Dennis Ip, an analyst with Daiwa Capital Markets. In turn, that will drive down costs of solar modules and deliver strong growth in installations, he said. Many of the new projects are also being located outside of Xinjiang, home to nearly half of existing global production. That factor has put the solar industry in the crosshairs of global trade wars, as governments including the US bar products from the region because of accusations of forced labour andFixing polysilicon shortages is key for the solar industry because it’s the most difficult step in the supply chain in which to add capacity.
Why aren’t we making panels in Australia ? Labor costs ? Automate the process then, better than relying on a foreign country