Prices on the European photovoltaics market have been largely stable now for several weeks. Hardly any upward or downward outliers can be registered. As already mentioned last month, two price levels are becoming increasingly clear for Asian modules – one for modules that stem from Chinese production which is subject to the EU agreement and thus a restriction on imports; and one for modules from the rest of the Asian region – for which there are no regulatory matters.
While price movements on the module market are tapering off, the producers on the other hand are outdoing each other with one new record after the next as far as cell and module efficiency are concerned. The strategy, on the part of Chinese manufacturers in particular, appears to be that, if prices can no longer be varied as a result of the EU Directive, at least the performance of the modules sold at a specified price should be constantly increased. At the moment it is becoming clear that hardly any modules below the 250-watt mark are still being put on the European market by the leading Asian manufacturers.
Another effective means with which to justify higher prices is known to be better service. However, a number of suppliers of photovoltaic technology continue to have a problem in this regard. The European offices of Chinese manufacturers are being closed or reduced to only a few staff. New, comparatively small Asian producers are unable and unwilling to afford representative European offices as long as market prospects are so incalculable. Unfortunately, wholesale dealers and distributors, who normally would be able to take over such service for the respective manufacturers, are disappearing by the dozen. Thus is still ample room for new ideas and approaches – outsourcing of after-sales services, as already practiced by First Solar, represents only one of the possible solutions.
Hopefully a lot of manufacturers will at least enhance their product quality accordingly and incorporate additional quality assurance measures into their manufacturing operations in order to ensure just that. This is the first place where manufacturers looked to save during those periods of the lowest prices. If this austerity policy is now finally a thing of the past, then the antidumping proceedings conducted by the EU Commission would in fact have an upside. Good quality comes at a certain price – this goes without saying. However, the solar industry has increasingly come to learn that a much higher price has to be paid for poor quality – plant operators and insurers certainly have their own stories to tell.