At Least 180 Solar Panel Makers Will Go out of Business or Be Bought out by 2015

A recent report by GTM Research suggests that due to the oversupply of the solar industry at least 180 solar panel makers will go out of business or be bought out by 2015. Shyam Mehta, one of the analysts who composed the report, said that they expected nearly 60 percent of existing solar suppliers to leave the market by 2014. GTM estimates that on average supply will exceed demand in the solar industry by 35 gigawatts each year for the next three years, with the largest number of casualties coming from the high cost US, European, and Canadian markets. GTM analysed more than 300 panel makers when compiling their report and identified Solarworld, a and Conergy of Germany, Isofoton, and Solaria Energia y Medio Ambiente of Spain as potential buyout targets. Shyam wrote in the report that “the writing is on the wall. These companies will either take what they can get via acquisition or they will bow out. ” Manufacturing costs for solar panels in the US, Europe, and Japan is over 80 cents a watt, whereas Chinese manufacturers pay just 58-68 cents a watt, allowing them to turn a high profit and survive for much longer when demand is low. Even so, 54 of the 180 firms expected to exit the market will be Chinese, and this number would have been much higher if it was not for China’s ambitious plan to raise solar power capacity by 40 percent to 21 gigawatts by 2015. Source: oilprice