InfoLink Consulting Co., Ltd.

Intersolar Europe, the world’s leading solar industry trade fair, will take place from May 11 to 13 in Munich. InfoLink will report on the latest market, policy, and demand developments in the European market.

This year, the resurgence of Covid-19 in China caused prices to spike in the solar supply chain. Amid the current international situation, high ocean freight rates and continuous price hikes in precious metal and EVA led to rising module costs and pushed up prices across the supply chain. Against this backdrop, it’s unlikely module prices will drop this year. Europe, having experienced knock-on effects on installation and costs brought by the pandemic, becoming aware of the importance of domestic manufacturing. Meanwhile, the EU started rolling out plans for renewable development amid energy transition, resulting in robust demand in the first half.

Europe saw bullish PV demand outlook. In the first three months of this year, China exported 16 GW of modules to the continent. Module demand for the second quarter is expected to reach 12 GW and come in at 49 GW this year. As supply has been disrupted by the resurgence of Covid-19 cases in China in recent months, glass-backsheet modules rated beyond 500 W were delivered at USD 0.27-0.275/W in May, with spot prices arriving at USD 0.275-0.28/W amid tight supply. Prices for residential projects have reached USD 0.28-0.29/W. Amid a high price level, InfoLink will revise European demand of the month in according to buyer-seller negotiation results.

The issue of supply chain management has become prominent this year. Examining the capacity distribution of module BOM, glass and encapsulant film supply chain is concentrated in China and Southeast Asia. The capacity expansion plans of small-sized European manufacturers remain to be monitored.

The exhibition list of this year’s event includes most Tier-1 Chinese Manufacturers. Prior to the exhibition, European manufacturers released press on n-type technology and IBC products, while news unveiled information of applications of solar-plus-storage, Agri-PV and BIPV systems.

InfoLink will bring you the latest developments and trends from the event, stay tuned for more updates.