Every week for the last few months, we’ve seen news from solar manufacturers that are feeling the pinch from dropping polysilicon prices. The price of the stuff, the key ingredient in photovoltaic panels, has dropped 89 percent since February 2008, which is great news for the solar proponents cheering the drop as a major step toward grid parity.
But solar manufacturers have less to cheer from the news: Many are now struggling to make dwindling profit margins work. On top of falling prices, changes to feed-in tariffs in Germany and Italy have changed the business case for solar manufacturers selling there, catching some companies off-guard.
First Evergreen Solar and now Intel-backed SpectraWatt have declared bankruptcy. German solar giant Q-Cells, LDK Solar, and even industry darling First Solar all cut second quarter 2011 revenue projections. Q-Cells is now looking into insurance it could provide customers should the company declare bankruptcy.
But all is not doom-and-gloom for the solar business: The more competitive market is playing to the benefit of some players. Utilities, for example, are finding themselves able to push forward with large-scale projects, emboldened by the sudden influx of cheap photovoltaic panels. Corporate purchasers are similarly able to make on-site solar projects pencil out in ways they just didn’t two years ago. There are even a few bright spots for those manufacturers that know how to stand out from the competition.
Read More: Why Sinking Solar Prices are Bad for Startups, Great for Enterprises via Greenbiz.com