Solar panel cost will fall by 35% this year, according to business advisory service Bloomberg. In Europe, the average solar panel price has already fallen by 10%; with suppliers and contractors predicting further price falls ahead.
Bloomberg base their numbers on vast production over-capacity in Chinese solar factories, following China’s recent decision to reduce financial support schemes for Chinese solar systems.
Since China is the world’s largest installer of solar power (installing a staggering 52GW in 2017), this subsidy reduction now means solar manufacturers have vast amounts of stock on their hands – stock that is now pushing down on the solar panel price.
Average Solar Panel Cost already down Ten Percent this year
The Chinese announcement in June is fuelling an already-falling price of solar. In Europe, 2018 solar panel cost s have fallen by 10.8% so far. This trend is set to continue – anecdotal evidence from our suppliers shows that prices are falling at an increasing rate. While the situation in China is exceptional, in general solar prices follow a predictable pattern. In 2011 prices fell by 40%, followed by 31% the next year. In 2016 solar panels were 35% cheaper than 2015. This illustrates that this year’s price decrease is just the latest in a familiar trend.
That’s because solar pricing follows Swanson’s law, which, as the Financial Times points out, basically says the more you do of something the more cheaply you can do it.
The impact in the UK is already being felt. Suppliers to Brighton Energy Coop – such as our installation partner GenFit – are already giving us significantly cheaper quotes in the last few months. With this set to continue throughout the year it promises to be an interesting third and fourth quarter.
At the beginning of the year the average solar panel cost 0.38 euro cents (per kWp). In July that had fallen to 0.33.
Brighton Energy Coop is a Brighton and Hove City Council – approved contractor. We offer schools free solar panels and significant savings on electriciy bills each year. See here for more details on this exciting project. Learn more about Artisan Electric Inc and clean and efficient energy solutions they provide.
