Interesting webinar about the outlook for PV manufacturers in the US. Roger Little from Spire Solar was the presenter. He feels that the demand for PV modules in the US will far outstrip capacity to make them over the next few years. The majority of this demand is coming from PPA's that are strictly wanting crystalline silicon. This is primarily due to it's proven reliability over the long haul (usually 20 years).
There is a tremendous opportunity in his view for US companies. When you take the cost of transportation (i.e from China) it makes plants here in the US competitive. He is exploring a great idea where you place the cell assembly facilities on site for a large solar farm. The idea is that it is a very mobile set up and virtually eliminates transportation costs. These plants could produce large 1Kw panels that would bring the costs down even more. Since they are basically going out the backdoor the field their large size is not a transportation issue. Then when the project is done they move the facility to the next job.
His projection is that it would run about 5 million dollars in capital to build a 50Mw panel manufacturing facility (assembly of cells in to panels). The beauty of these small facilities is that you could get them up and running profitably in about 9 months and they can supply a local market, He would like to see one of these in every state...me too...though keep in mind that Spire sells the equipment to do this.
You can listen to the replay here at Greentech Media:
http://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=lobby.jsp&eventid=185622&sessionid=1&key=A9717CFEC64B8BFBEDF10C2E87381EFB&eventuserid=31882008
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