How does polysilicon affect the price of solar panels?

Polysilicon, a high-purity form of silicon, is a key raw material – forming solar cells and solar modules – in the solar photovoltaic (PV) supply chain. Hence, any change in the prices of polysilicon would affect the price of solar modules which will lead to an increase in the overall cost of solar power.

How are PV production costs modeled?

The costs of materials, equipment, facilities, energy, and labor associated with each step in the production process are individually modeled. Input data for this analysis method are collected through primary interviews with PV manufacturers and material and equipment suppliers.

Is PV cell manufacturing a 'dominant design'?

Indeed, PV cell and module manufacturing has followed a developmental path common to many industries in which initial, intense experimentation is followed by the emergence of a ‘dominant design’ 26 and a shift in productive activity away from product innovations and towards production improvements to increase scale and reduce costs 27, 28, 29, 30.

Where are installed capacity and module price data extracted?

For China, both the installed capacity and module price data (2007–2018) were extracted from reports and presentations by the Energy Research Institute (ERI) 50, and the 2019–2020 data were extracted from China Photovoltaic Industry Association where the historical data are identical to that of ERI 51.