zlacker

>>campus+(OP)
> China’s solar industry is also grappling with oversupply. This year the prices of most components of solar modules have fallen below their average production cost.

This should surely be regarded as an opportunity to install solar panels at low cost while stocks and production capacity still exist.

>>kwhite+X8
The panels themselves have been an insignificant parr of the total cost for a while.

Mounts, connectors, wires, and inverters end up costing much more than the panels.

>>pstrat+9a
If the profit margin is 10% then a 10% reduction in total material and labour cost more than doubles your profit margin if you keep your prices the same.

So how small a part of the total is the module cost? Even if you can only save 5% you still make more than 50% extra profit.

>>kwhite+4R
The price per watt for rooftop PV system installations varies dramatically from country to country in the west. Where I live in Canada the average cost is about $2 USD per watt installed (for a 7-10kW system). In Australia, the same system costs about $0.66 USD per watt installed.

That means for a 10kW system I'm looking at $20k USD in Canada vs. $6600 USD in Australia. That's such a huge difference that 5-10% cost reduction in Canada would barely make a difference at all. I have serious doubts that any Canadian household could recoup the cost of a big solar install over the lifetime of the panels vs simply investing that money in ETFs.

Perhaps the situation is different in the US?