By Nora Caley | Solar Industry
Overcapacity and poor margins are out, and profitability is in. That’s according to Lux Research, which recently reported that the solar industry is set to recover quickly.
The firm’s Solar Systems Intelligence and Solar Components Intelligence teams analyzed solar market economics and industry movement. Among the findings were three main conclusions: Oversupply will end as supply and demand converge, corporations are entering or re-entering the solar business, and the industry is planning ahead.
The oversupply issue will improve partly as a result of changes in China. According to Lux Research, overall module capacity will decrease to 58 GW in 2015. China will transition from being mostly a producer of inexpensive modules to also being a market for those modules, which will help global demand grow from 31 GW in 2012 to 52 GW in 2015. That means there will still be module oversupply, but it will be only 12%, down from 100% in 2012. As a result, module margins will recover up to 10% from their near-zero averages today.
If you’d like to discuss energy issues, contact Court Rich, Co-Chair of Rose Law Group’s
Renewable Energy Department at crich@roselawgroup.com
