p-type PERC solar panel prices could cross the EUR 0.10 ($0.1093)/Wp mark during the first quarter of 2024, according to Leen van Bellen, director of business development for Europe at Search4Solar, a Dutch purchasing platform for photovoltaic products. He told pv magazine that European stocks will fall and prices are expected to recover by the middle of the second quarter of 2024.
According to international magazine pv
Prices for pv-type PERC solar modules in Europe are currently close to EUR 0.10/W, according to Leen van Bellen, director of business development for Europe at Search4Solar, a platform for buying solar panels, inverters and battery solutions based in the Netherlands. .
“The prices of p-type products today are between €0.100 and €0.115 and we believe that the magic €0.10 mark will be crossed in the first quarter of 2024,” he said. magazine pv with reference to prices applied to the minimum purchase of a container. Inventories are expected to decline further in the middle of the second quarter of 2024 and prices will slowly rise again.”
“If we take into account the new types of modules, the price is around EUR 0.20/W,” he said.
For Leen van Bellen, the number of modules stored in European warehouses is lower than we think. For example, he disputed the figure reported by Norwegian research company Rystad Energy, which said in July that 80 GW of solar modules were still unsold.
“Assuming 400 W panels, 80 GW corresponds to 240,000 containers,” says Leen van Bellen. There are now 40 leading manufacturers and none of them have more than a few hundred or even a few thousand containers. Other manufacturers do not have more than a few dozen containers. As for medium-sized distributors, they have fifty to one hundred containers, and large distributors one hundred to two hundred and fifty containers. If we add up all the results and all the requests, we arrive at a number of containers between 50,000 and 80,000.”
Leen van Bellen clarifies that Search4Solar does not have warehouses or warehouses, but works with the warehouses of manufacturers, distributors and installers. “This means we are well informed and therefore have a clear view of European equities,” he said.
According to him, manufacturers are likely to be more cautious in the future about the amount of inventory they send to Europe: “it is difficult to determine whether inventory levels will be as ‘normal’ in 2024” as distributors and assemblers are likely to buy more cautiously. “However, in times of scarcity, things return to normal. It remains a matter of supply and demand,” says the buyer.
Search4Solar has around 8,000 registered members across Europe. “In terms of business model, Search4Solar is comparable to Bol.com or Amazon,” said Leen van Bellen.
Translated by Marie Beyer.
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