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March 30, 2011Solar Roof – What does it Mean (Solar Tiles,BIPV),Solar Shingle Companies,Advantages
March 30, 2011Sharp is the biggest company in the world in terms of making revenues from sales of solar panels so it seems counterintuitive for someone to recommend not buying Sharp Solar Panels.However this Japanese Conglomerate has been losing marketshare rapidly to cheaper Asian competitors.Sharp due to its factories in high cost locations makes solar panels at a much higher cost and sells them at much higher prices as well.The reason is that they manage to sell so many solar panels is that consumers are not educated about other better options and the other solar panel companies don’t have the distribution networks.Note Sharp has been trying to diversify away from crystalline solar panels to thin film solar panels.The reason is that they are losing the competitive advantage to Chinese companies like Trina Solar and others.
Sharp outsources production of solar cells to Taiwanese solar companies since it costs them much more to produce solar cells on their own.It makes sense to buy directly from those companies at a cheaper cost than from Sharp.There are also much cheaper solar panels from other bigger Chinese companies like Suntech,Yingle as well.Sharp can say that they have a better quality but that does not work in a commodity business of solar panels.Note Solar Panels are no LCD Tvs and the quality difference between Sharp and Korean Solar Panel from LG will be hardly anything to justify the 40-50% higher price of Sharp Solar Panels compared to the cheapest solar panel from other companies.
Note the Chinese Solar Panel Prices at around $1.5/watt are the lowest in the world and are sold at a substantial discount to the European and American Solar Panels.These days Solar Panels are also being outsource to China by bigger companies in the West to take advantage of the low cost Chinese Solar Panels..The Prices of Solar Panels can fluctuate a lot depending on the global supply/demand and is currently at around $1.65/watt in 2011 beginning.However the prices can come down by around 20% if oversupply happens to reach $1.4/watt or lower.The costs of Chinese Solar Panels differs by different companies with the lowest Panel Producers being able to producer Solar Panels at around $1/watt
While buying BP Solar Panels is dumb both from a Green as well as the Economic Perspective,buying Sharp Solar Panel is a Bad Idea from the Pricing Point of View only.
Greenworldinvestor Articles you should read
- Cheapest Solar Panels – Which Companies Sell at the Lowest Price and Why you should avoid Distributors/Wholesalers
- Solar Panel Manufacturers – Guide to the Biggest and Best
- Cheap Solar Panels – Five Most Affordable Solar Panel Brands
- Free Solar Panels – They don’t Exist and Why you should not Confuse Free with Government Subsidies
- Solar Panels in India – Complete Guide on Buying Low Cost PV Panels from Solar Energy System Manufacturers
- Korean Solar Energy Set to Explode due to the Greenest Government and Chaebols Hanwha,Hyundai,Posco,Samsung,LG
- List of World’s Major Solar Energy Companies
3 Comments
What you don’t talk about at all, is that quality very much matters and people should be warned against buying poor quailty panels (e.g. some Chinese imports). From the article it would appear that all panels are basically the same, so rather go for the cheaper ones. That is not good advice.
Kobus
Kobus,
If you could be more specific, you may have a point. What exactly do we get by paying a premium for Sharp or for that matter any expensive solar panel. I see prices from $1 to $2 and am confused now.
Fitting them can take anything from 30 minutes to a few hours,
but the fact is, saving money is what fitting panels yourself is all about.
People have suddenly got conscious through the many mediums available and
are shifting to this eco friendly option. The average
amount of direct sunlight for these roofs is about 5.