No Sign The Solar Price Storm Has Ebbed


Over production continues to rile the solar cell business.

Prices entered a free fall earlier this year when declining demand and over production created an imbalance in supply and demand.

Slower than anticipated demand has since widened the imbalance, creating a black cloud over the business that worries investors and executives.

According to FBR Capital Markets analyst Mehdi Hosseini, many observers expected lower prices would by now stimulate consumer and utility interest in solar cells. They haven’t, and speculation is they won’t until early next year.

That means 2009 will be a wash out for the industry.

Hosseini recently found polysilicon spot market prices as low as $60 a kilogram compared with up to $95 in early April.

Consequently, six-inch solar wafers now sell as little as $3 a wafer, and cells for about $1.50 a watt compared with $2 in early April.

With profits harder to come up, the business is going to be in limbo until at least late this year.