Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

This guest blog was provided by Ash Sharma, Renewable Energy Research Director and Tom Haddon, PV Research Analyst at IMS Research:

In the past, inverters have often been an overlooked part of the PV supply chain – probably because of the relatively small proportion they account for in PV system costs. Recently however, inverters have become critically important to customers due to the severe lack of them available which delayed the connection of hundreds of installations at the end of 2009.

Official German PV installation figures for November have recently been released, giving a clear picture of expected record installations in the country for 2009. However, there is a major mismatch between expectations for December and total installed system numbers from Photon, which has claimed 4GW and beyond. In an exclusive interview with Andreas Hänel, founder and CEO of major PV systems integrator Phoenix Solar, we discuss his new forecast for 2009 and 2010, which add to the conclusion that Photon needs to drastically change its forecast downwards to retain any credibility in the future.

With only a handful of major solar-related manufacturers having released fourth-quarter and full-year financial results, a picture is already emerging as to the health and wealth and 2010 trends for the solar industry. Having reported financial results and conducted its quarterly conference call last Thursday, JA Solar gave a lot of data points to digest about capacity ramps but also importantly, average selling prices (ASPs) for 2010.

After a fair amount of digging and the much needed help of our German correspondent we can now confirm that the reports of a 16-17% cut in feed-in tariff rate for Germany were true, and the cuts are to go ahead from April 1, 2010.

Several German news sources have reported that this figure is in fact authentic, not least of which the German Financial Times, Sueddeutsche. The Wall Street Journal reported that the maximum 17% cut is indeed on the cards, quoting today Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle as saying, "the German government could realistically cut between 16% and 17% of the subsidies it gives to solar-power providers."

Reuters has kicked up a storm over a story claiming that cuts to the German FiT could be as high as 17% and brought in as quickly as April. We have been inundated with messages either by sending us that story or asking for confirmation of its authenticity as well as simply asking for our thoughts. I thought it best to address everyone via this blog rather than get back to everyone individually.

In a guest blog provided by Ash Sharma, renewable energy research director, and Sam Wilkinson, renewable energy research analyst at IMS Research, the authors say that contrary to many announcements by analysts so far, IMS Research estimates that in 2009, the PV market – in terms of both new installations and shipments of PV modules and inverters -- grew substantially.

The German government met at the Environment Ministry in Berlin on January 13 to discuss cuts to the state-mandated solar incentives, including the feed-in tariff rate. These cuts have been anticipated for this year due to a steeper overall slide in costs. The FiT has been falling by about 8% per year before dropping 10% in 2010.

As we progress further into what will soon be 2010 - 'the year solar PV will take off', more changes are being made in the world of photovoltaics in Australia. This country has seen many changes to its renewable situation during 2009, with new feed-in tariffs announced, improved and tweaked as the continent moves towards its goal of a nationwide gross feed-in tariff scheme.

The new German Government didn’t spend much time after the recent election to propose changes in the FiT program above and beyond the planned yearly declines. Then under pressure from the PV industry and certain states, politicians became more conciliatory to less than ‘aggressive’ changes, even though it was never made clear what the degree of changes would inevitably be. However, with the increasing belief of a growing number of industry observers and players, PV installations in the country are set for record levels, far beyond what the new Government would accept under ‘reasonable’ growth.

SEMI PV Group has released a policy document intended to promote the widespread awareness and understanding of public policy best practices in support of solar technology. The white paper, 'Advancing a Sustainable Solar Future: SEMI PV Group policy principals and recommended best practices for solar feed-in tariffs,' places the FiT under the spotlight, dissecting this incentive in order to display its innards as the number one for a sustainable solar future.