Last week I blogged about falling solar panel costs. Several readers theorized offline that the economic downturn might slow production and lead to further panel shortages, thus raising costs and slowing adoption. Good news. This morning my friend in the semiconductor industry forwarded me this iSuppli study indicating that prices are expected to fall a record 20% in 2009.
“In 2009, average prices for panels for new installation contracts will collapse to the US$2.50 to US$2.75 per watt range by the end of 2009, down from the current level of US$4.20 per watt. – iSuppli”
In addition to the advances in solar electric production, we are also seeing advances in power storage, including nano-capacitors.
All this activity further validates my underling theory: we have seen this game before (CPUs, Memory, and Storage). The solar game is just like the computer hardware game, and the winners will be businesses and consumers.
So I ask… who are the Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, Andy Grove, Steve Jobs and Jack Simplot of solar?
also related: Wall Street and Solar
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