Price of photovoltaic panels, the trend in 2014

The prices of photovoltaic solar panels in the last five years have fallen heavily. It 'a trend not only for the United States, but which involved all the world. The strong decrease was related to the success of government incentives (especially in Europe) distributed in time, the demands of solar modules have increased and the price has dropped, partly because in the 'arena have entered the Chinese manufacturers that have flooded the market with low cost products (Trina, Yingli, Suntech).

What is expected for 2014? What will be the price of solar panels? We will see a further decline? For many people we are now close to the so-called "grid parity", it means the same price between obtained a kilowatt of electricity through photovoltaic and the cost of a kilowatt of electricity sold by the company. We should probably get to pay less than $ 1 for each watt of PV CSI module.

As you can see from the picture the average price in 2012 of a module amounted to $ 2.29 per watt. We can of course pay 1.5 dollars for Chinese panels or 2.5-3 dollars for high yield-such as Panasonic or Sanyo Sunpower of California. Solar Buzz notes that the European markets have absorbed about 80% of global demand for PV over the past five years. However, in recent months, there have been severe cuts to incentives in Europe, this has reduced the race to purchase PV implants and as a result the prices have decreased less than what was expected.

The cuts to the incentives are the result of government programs that have been successful in the past in creating a strong demand, but, importantly, have helped to bring down the unit cost of the panels.Another factor contributing to the reduction of the retail price of modules has been caused by a change in those who produced them.

Over the past five years, the European, Japanese, and U.S. manufacturers have lost market share compared to the Chinese and Taiwanese.

What to expect in the near future: the fall in prices will continue steadily, but not as strong as before. Only a strong incentive program could dramatically bring down the prices of the modules, or a technological innovation that is currently not yet been developed in a commercial manner.

Click here to read the complete solar price module analysis done by Solar Buzz.