Gallium & Indium Prices Reflect Solar Industry Woes

Gallium and indium producers have, in recent years, repeatedly identified CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide) solar technology as an increasingly important market for their production, with new demand from this sector being a justification for price increases and capacity expansion.

Unfortunately for those depending on the growth of CIGS technology, recent months have provided nothing but a series of bad news. Most recently, First Solar Inc. - the market leader in photovoltaic (PV) cells - announced that it will be ending its CIGS research program.

The announcement follows CIGS specialist Solyndra LLC's application for bankruptcy protection in August and Aurubis' closure of CIS Solartechnik last month.

With intense competition at both the corporate and national levels, the profitability of solar energy companies is under growing pressure. Government austerity measures, low energy prices and slow economic growth contributed to First Solar cutting its 2011 sales expectations.

Both indium and gallium prices have been fighting to find some stability since they began falling in August.

Chart courtesy of Metal-pages.com

Comments

[solar panels]

Shouldn't the decline of these metals help the solar industry produce cheaper solar panels?

[SMI Ltd.]

The cost of producing CIGS solar cells is already very competitive compared with producing silicon wafer panels, but efficiency levels have kept CIGS cells limited to niche applications. This will continue to be the case whether the price of indium and gallium are $400/kg or $1000/kg.

The question is how large this market is going to be in 2, 5 and 10 years time, and whether CIGS can improve efficiency levels to be a cost-effective choice in the face of a growing diversity of alternative energy options.

[Placas solares precios]

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[china outsourcing]

With intense competition at both the corporate and national levels, the profitability of solar energy companies is under growing pressure. Government austerity measures, low energy prices and slow economic growth contributed to First Solar cutting its 2011 sales expectations.