Solar PV Prices To Fall By 20%  

Barrons is quoting a UBS report saying that solar PV prices will drop by 20% this year - Solar Module Prices To Drop 20% In ‘09, UBS Says.

Sunshine is free. Solar modules are not. But they are getting cheaper: UBS analyst Stephen Chin today revised his forecast for solar module pricing to down 20%, from a previous estimate of down 14%. Chin says the recent move by the government in Spain to cap its solar subsidy program will move solar module volumes to other markets, including Germany and Japan, where lower pricing is required to generate favor returns for solar system buyers. The revised Spanish solar subsidy program will cut installations in Spain to 300MW next year, from an estimated 1.2GW this year.

Chin today cut EPS estimates by about 10% for 13 global solar companies, including SunPower (SPWR), Evergreen Solar (ESLR), LDK (LDK), Suntech (STP), Yingli (YGE), Q-Cells, Solarworld, REC, Conergy, Solon, Motech, E-Ton and Sino-American Silicon. He also cut his rating on SunPower to Neutral from Buy, while increasing his rating on Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) to Buy from Neutral.

The upgrade of ENER reflects his view that “its thin-film technology and laminate based modules…will likely have limited impacted from our new view of lower solar module prices.” He adds that the company’s “differentiated products…will enable it to win the fast growing niche commercial rooftop solar market.”

Ever wonder what potential your roof has for solar power generation? Want to tinker around with different system configurations before even talking with a solar installer? If that’s you then RoofRay may be just the solution you've been waiting for.

What you do is: Enter an address so that a satellite image of your building pops up, draw your chosen solar array configuration, choose your roof tilt angle and hit calculate. From there you can look at the potential power of the system, power per square foot, financial data, etc.

Be Prepared to Tinker for a While

Obviously you’re going to have to put some time in to draw up your plans, know things about your house that perhaps the average homeowner doesn’t (roof angle in degrees?), and hopefully your house isn’t so newly built that it doesn’t yet show up on Google’s satellite imagery. As cool as this is, be prepared to tinker and play around with it. There’s no one-click button to generate your ideal configuration.

Assess Solar Potential of Different Homes Before Buying

Earth2Tech points out what is an interesting usage of the system: If you’re looking to buy a new home, you could use the RoofRay calculator to assess the solar potential of different buildings before purchasing.