Solar PV Module Costs to Fall to 36 Cents per Watt by 2017

Green Tech Media, by Nicholas Rinaldi, June 18, 2013

 

Production costs for industry-leading Chinese crystalline-silicon (c-Si) PV module manufacturers -- such as Jinko Solar, Renesola, Trina Solar and Yingli Green Energy -- will fall from 50 cents per watt in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 36 cents per watt by the end of 2017, according to a new 112-page report from GTM Research. The report, "PV Technology and Cost Outlook, 2013-2017," predicts that the majority of these cost declines will derive from technology innovations such as diamond wire sawing for PV wafers, advanced metallization solutions, and increased automation in place of manual labor. While precipitous cost declines of roughly 70 cents per watt from 2010 to 2012 were made possible by cutthroat pricing and margin erosion in the polysilicon and PV materials markets, the report sees cost reduction drivers migrating in-house for wafer, cell, and module suppliers, as adoption of advanced technology platforms and manufacturing automation will account for 80 percent of the forecasted declines.

 

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