Solar market in Germany returns to spotlight

The solar market focus has been on Italy's new incentive program. The market has been bleak and prices have been falling like dominoes. Industry sources wish to understand more of the demand side by attending Intersolar Europe 2011 in Munich, Germany on June 8. The low demand has been traumatizing the prices of the solar supply chain from modules to upstream materials such as wafers and polysilicon since first quarter 2011. According to industry sources, the dumping of inventories that has caused prices to drop has been easing in recent weeks. Hopefully a stopping point will soon halt the continuous price falls. The biggest market for solar is still Germany. The industry anticipates the market in Germany will heat up in the second half of the year because installations in the first half of the year has been weak and it could cause the magnitude of the incentive cuts starting in July 1 to shrink. The falling price also increases internal rate of return (IRR) for European system installations. Hopefully this will stimulate consumer demand. In addition, further incentive cuts are scheduled to occur in January 2012 and the industry expects a hike of installations will occur before then. Taiwan-based solar firms such as Motech, Gintech, Neo Solar, Solartech and E-ton Solar all reported large drops in revenues for April.