Solar module purchases delayed as wafer thickness further reduced

Europe’s power prices have tripled and the indefinite, likely permanent reduction of cheap Russian pipeline gas makes that a feature for the rest of the decade. One would think that would more than compensate for higher solar module costs, and indeed it does for rooftop installations for which module cost is in any case a small fraction of project cost. But for utility-scale projects module cost can be as high as 40% of total investment cost, and the Euro has fallen 10% against the yuan and 18% against the dollar in a year. This week PV Infolink’s price report included a section portraying some projects in Europe getting delayed due to high module prices – “inventory draws slow down, as…