Solar panel prices continue to fall. The dismal economy is the biggest factor, but buyers are also benefiting from improvements in efficiency and progress in lowering manufacturing and material costs.
Both the silicon and thin-film solar panel producers are making gains. A big part of the competition is who can provide the biggest bang (i.e. higher efficiency) for the fewest bucks and a variety of strategies are being used.
Sunpower sets efficiency record
Some of the more promising developments have taken place during the darkest days of the Great Recession too. Sunpower, which along with Sanyo produces the most efficient solar panels at 19.3%, announced in the fall that it set a new record of 20.4% and that the advanced panels would be commercially available within two years.
The announcement came soon after Suniva, a newbie monocrystalline solar panel producer, bumped its efficiency up to 18.2%. Though still behind Sunpower and not even a player on the world market, it’s been getting attention for making high-efficiency solar cells using conventional screen-printing methods that cost less than the method used at Sunpower. (Sunpower’s industry leading efficiency is in part a product of newer, more advanced and more expensive screen-printing.)
The thin-film producers have also been busy. First Solar, which claimed to be the first solar company to lower its production costs to under $1 a watt, said last summer to have reduced it to $.85 a watt.
Sanyo
First Solar
More recently, IBM and Nanosolar, a start-up, reported lab efficiency advances with different versions of thin-film. While thin-film leader First Solar uses cadmium telluride, IBM uses copper, tin, zinc, selenium and sulfur or CTZSS to get a record 9.6% efficiency – 40% higher than the previous record for this material mix. Nanosolar reached 16.4% using copper indium gallium selenide or CIGS. Note though, cadmium is a toxic substance right up there with lead and mercury and IBM used what it used because they saw no supply shortage as they did with what First Solar uses.
So where does this leave homeowners? With a lot to choose from at prices lower than ever before. Scanning reviews and statistics on the web the same brands keep coming up for price, quality and value. They include Sunpower, Sanyo, Sharp, Evergreen, Kyocera and Suntech.
Sunpower and Sharp are one-two in the California market, which is the same as saying they’re one-two in the U.S. Sunpower, Sanyo and Suntech are monocrystalline producers. Sharp does both, but the polycrystalline panels are the more popular of the two.
Kyocera and Evergreen use polycrystalline silicon, which is cheaper, but also a less efficient silicon panel material. Thin-film is a much smaller factor in the residential solar panel market, but its low cost is putting pressure on the silicon makers to improve their pricing.
A couple of sites are helpful for consumers. They’re EcoBusiness Links’s Cheapest Solar Panels and solarbythewatt.com. Sanyo makes both lists, so does Kaneka, which as a thin-film producer is one of the lowest cost solar panel providers in the world.
I’d stick with the silicon, still the residential standard and prices are soft. The lowest retail price for a multi-crystalline silicon solar module is $1.74 per watt from a US retailer, according to Solarbuzz.
Evergreen bargain
That’s some buy if you get in a good brand. A rooftop photovoltaic system usually costs twice the cost of a panel’s price or about $3,500 per kilowatt or less than half the average price of a year or so ago.
A 195-watt Evergreen panel is selling on the web at this address for $445 or about $4,500 per kilowatt installed.
You can get a great deal with mono too. The lowest retail price for a mono-crystalline silicon module is just $2.13 per watt – though from a German retailer.
But I’ll also keep my eye on the non-toxic thin film panels if and when they start appearing in the market at reasonable prices and better efficiency coming out of the plant, not just the lab.
Tags: California, EcoBusiness, Evergreen, IBM, Kaneka, Kyocera, Nanosolar, Sanyo, Sharp, Solarbuzz, solarbythewatt, Suniva, SunPower, Suntech