Solar panel prices to fall by up to 40% by year end

Not what Sharp UK are telling me... Prices are going up 18% this month because of the Yen being so strong against the Euro and Pound.  Despite the fact that they make panels locally in the UK, the prices are going up because they decided to do all their internal costing in Euros and the Pound has fallen to record lows against the Euro and Yen.  The Pound's not so hot against the USD either so the price of US panels is also getting much more expensive here. 

 

I'm sure eventually that we'll see prices come down but right now the banking crisis is putting paid to that.

but some of the installers are obviously getting desparate. we had a quote a couple of weeks ago, 'today's price not to be repeated' £15 000 reduced from £20 000 for approx. 2kWp array, we dont take kindly to pressure sales and were a bit stunned anyway. a week late they phoned back, £10 000. i found the panels retail online, that price is about what they would cost to buy ourselves. and pay 17 1/2 % v.a.t. on top grrrrr

 

its still too much, until we know what the feed in tarrif will be there is no way i can even guess what the payback time will be. at current prices (our supplier offered us 5p per kWh for the renewables obligation plus a measly 7 pence (cheek!) for the juice) its just not viable.

There's a lot of cowboys in the industry.  They are the new "double glazing" salesmen...

 

I bought a couple of Sharp panels at the best price I could find on the net from brightgreenenergy.co.uk.  They do installations but also sell parts to DIYers like me.

 

Sharp ND170E1 panels are the best value £/W at the moment as far as I can tell and 2kWp would cost about £7,200 inc VAT for 12 (you have to buy them in pairs).

 

A Sunny Boy 1700 inverter (good for 400V string at 2050Wp, ideal for a string of 12 Sharps) comes in at about £1,300 inc VAT.

 

Sundries like cable, fuses, disconnects and panel mounts is probably about £1500.

 

So parts wise, you're only looking at £10k plus a couple of days labour to install.

 

I've been building up from nothing last autumn to a 600Wp off-grid system today.  You can read my blog thread at www.mrsharkey.com/forum/vwtp.php

 

 

Hey AccordGuy, your link is good, informative, nice. I got good information with your posts.

The price of silicon is like the prices of gas at the pumps. Future traders see this silicon product like gas. It is true that silicon moves differently in prices month to month or even seasons. Most solar panels that are made using silicon will continue to see plus and minus prices. This is what drives us crazy. Well I am happy to anounce that this will all change soon. We are building a factory here in Florida to produce the "Next Generation Solar Panels". It looks like the factory will employ over 300 people the first year. Our new solar panel design will out preform the silicon solar panels made today. We already have orders in place. Now all we have to do is fill the orders. We have been working on this new design for the last 3.5 years. We built 10 sample solar panels (500 watt range). It seems like all of our contacts want our next generation solar panels. Most of our customers responses have been. Wow how soon can we order these solar  panels.

Hi jim386 - Be nice to see the specifications, guarantees and styles of the new panels. Then each can decide how good of a deal they are.

People here might appreciate this info on a new type of concentrated reflective solar panel http://bit.ly/a9qlE  and these eye-shaped zippable versions: http://bit.ly/c8oMn

The improved reflectors I expect to come along - there is a market and someone will come up with a solution.

The problems not noted are:

1) Water consmption - cooling tower based cooling systems use between 2.5 and 3 liters per kW whereas air cooling or a Heller cooling tower use only a fraction of that amount

2) Heat storage - I see only one not so large tank - that means they will produce power only for an hour or two after the sun goes down. Definitely afternoon peak power is their target. 

The "Next Generation Solar Panels" specification are as follows. 38 volts @ 10 AMPS during low light conditions. During standard test conditions the results are 41 volts @ 10 AMPS. These results are based on 25 C, AM 1.5, at sea level. The solar cell's efficiency is 38% under low light conditions and 41% under ideal conditions. This new solar panel is not silicon or thin film type. We do not use solar concentration for these figures. Our solar cells capture 85% of the sun's energy. Visible, UV and IR. Our solar cells are 5-8 layers depending on the applications. We are talking with investors to open a factory here in Florida to produce our products. The factory will start out small and instead of increasing the size of the factory, our plan call for more factories instead. It is always better not to have all your production dependent on one factory. We get bad tropical storms here in Florida. This means we would have to halt production. Our target price will be $4.00 a watt, including inverters, and batteries if need be. This is the installed price. The warranty on our solar panels are 30 years. We intend to have sales, service, installation and support people in 75 offices in the United States. Now for the good part. We intend to employ over 3,000 people for the first 3 years. We are creating jobs.

People are asking me where they can buy these panels as the numbers (efficiencies of 38 to 41%, installed cost per watt of 4 USD including inverter and batteries and low light output) are rather exceptional. 

There is certainly nothing on the commercial market today that come anywhere close.

This is great news>> it is something our family wants when times are better for us>> we live high on a mountain in the south with a roof that was made for a solar panel>> clear of any trees or anything from sun up to late afternoon...
Where is the best place to read more about this? What is the anticipated cost of a complete system now? Do you think they will go lower by years end>> next year? What new items are on the horizon?

The cost of raw materials has gone down last year also. It lasted for 45 days. This has happened before in the solar industry. This is great but the finished price for a solar panel did not go down except 15 cents. The old price per watt was $4.00 a watt. The new price per watt is $3.85. Now that is not a 40% reduction in cost. Silicon is like oil. The prices differ from day to day. Who ever has a overstock of silicon dumps it on the market. It is a supply and demand game. When I started in the solar industry the cost of a watt was over $18.00.

For current solar prices (generalized) www.solarbuzz.com provides good data plus information about the industry.

History (as jim386 says):
April 06     4.77 per watt USD
Feb 07      4.88 per watt USD
Sept 09     4.39 per watt USD

I can believe those figures of ~40% efficiency.  A single layer thin film cell that responds to a single wavelength range is about 5% efficient so 8 layers that respond to different wavelengths (especially if that's IR) is about 40%.

As it's a new technology, I'd like to know how the guarantee can be set at 30 years.  Presumably by extrapolated accelerated aging tests.  Polysilicon wafer types can confidently claim 20-25 years as they've been around for that long now.

My solar costs me about $4.00/W and that's buying used panels from eBay...

New ones cost me $5.72/W back in Feb this year.

Dodgy unbranded (Chinese) ones are getting much cheaper $5.20/W but while the cells may be ok, the frame build has looked like a bathroom fitters nightmare on the ones I've seen. A very cheap 40W second hand one I bought for £67 doesn't even put out it's rated power... closest I've seen it get is 32W.  My used 4 year old Kyocera KD40s put out their name plate power and my Sharp ND170s often put out 106% of their nameplate (and that's after MPPT conversion and 13m of wiring losses)!

I almost bought a fake Sharp ND175 panel.  The guy was selling them on eBay and luckily he offered to deliver to me... lucky because I took one good look at it, showed him the mechanical schematic from the ND series user manual I have for my real Sharp panels and sent him packing.

The dodgy makers have cottoned on to the fact that used Sharp / Kyocera / other good name brands can sell for more second hand than their "new" ones.  So much so that they now seem prepared to flog fake ones.

This panel I looked at was potentially dangerous.  It claimed to be a 175W panel but only had 3A diodes... 175W into 35V is 5A... One bad shading event and the thing will burn out or catch fire (the diodes were in the plastic box on the back).

I say "potentially" because testing it under a bunch of lamps I reckoned that it was made from inferior cells and would struggle to put out more than 100W.  I did a baseline test under the same lamps with my cheap 40W panel that only puts out 32W.  Ironically, the panel was probably safe as 100W into 35V is... 2.8A (what a co-incidence).

This is great news, i have been planning to totally change the energy grid of my house and to switch to solar panels, LED lights, and everything else...

I do not think the solar panel price is cheaper than one year ago. Most of the commerical solar panel price is too high to afford.

Commercial solar panel prices are still high though with incentives they do work in some locations with high electricity prices. They have come down substantially the past year and will continue to do so as the industry expands and matures.

Home made panels - very few are capable of making such things - it is not easy! Regardless of what some of the shysters say! 

my question for you is. is how powerful of a system would i need to run completely off the grid permanently, and i do know that i need to take into consideration the about of kws that i use.. but on average.. what would be the best system/ most reliable/ affordable for the a household with a little more than the average amount of people in it?

You have to start by doing a little homework. You have to know your usage first thing. Your power company should be able to give you your history. The have you done anything to reduce it?  That is the place to start. The average electrical use is 1000 Kwh per month.

with a moderate amount of small changes and conservation you should be able to reduce that by more than 50%.

 

You have to pick the low hanging fruit first.

Hello all,

 

there has been a lot of innovation in terms of how to make solar panels more useful. It is great to know that some manufacturing units have designed small-size household products for routine use. The list of such products include solar lamps, solar interior decor and solar garden fountains.

 

This is encouraging.  I recently installed solar panels at my facilities, and the main guy I was working with told me that solar panels will be becoming more affordable and more efficient in the next 5-10 years.  I see this as an encouraging sign.  Perhaps we will see more alternative energy sources in industries.  I recently read that the US military is now installing solar panels on some of their facilities as a cost saving measure.  Personally, I am very glad that I invested in solar.  Already I am saving money in my energy bill.  I am trying to encourage other business owners to make the switch to solar.  Here's a blog post on my site about my story.

 

By the way, I am new to the forums.  Hello all.

Currently, the household still can not afford the solar panels system, though the price is decreasing. As manufacturer of solar panels in China, we have known much about the market. Our panels are sold to Spain, Italy, and some other European countries. In my point of view, only rich countries can afford solar panel system. In 2009, the price is more than 2USD/W, but in 2010, our price decreased to 1.7USD/W.

What is the actual cost for the install. I know the saving is great but whats the start up cost. Does anyone know of a las vegas company that provides a good product at a desent price?

 

Solar panels prices are going down. Its a good news. Now we can trap this form of energy to its best and make full use of without hampering the non renewable sources of energy. 

The falling price of solar panel may be good for energy conservation of this planet.

If you go to Squidoo.com they have an interesting article on building your own solar panels at a much cheaper rate than buying one.  From what I understand you can actually build one as good or better than some of the ones on the market today.