PV demand has started to increase this month, according to EnergyTrend’s observation. End-market demand for high-efficiency cells/modules has also reflected an uptrend. In the end of 2014, 250W 60-cell multi-si module remained the mainstream product, but the power output has reached 255W this quarter and will even reach 260W-275W by next quarter. While usual outputs for 60-cell mono-si module are between 260W-275W, there are 280-285W products coming out this year, which shows that PV market continues to work on technology improvement and development for high-efficiency products. In PV EXPO 2015, which was held in Japan last month, various manufacturers unveiled high-efficiency products, in which 300W mono-si modules showcased by Taiwanese, Japanese, and Korean manufacturers caught the most attention.

Chinese module export volume continues to increase, according to China customs export data. The export volume increased 12.3% (November) to 2120MW in December 2014. EnergyTrend also noticed the rising export ratio for high-efficiency modules from Shanghai export statistics – export ratio for 255W modules increased from 14% to 17% and 260W from 8% to 11%. In contrary, export ratio for 250W modules has dropped from 28% to 17%.

By using high-efficiency modules, it can reduce system costs and raise the power generated per unit area. In addition, due to lower PV subsidies and module/system prices, high-efficiency modules can ultimately increase the ROI for PV systems and thus will continue to be the focus in the future.

This Week's Price Quotes

Although orders from Europe and US were only a few because of the severe weather, total orders slightly increased from last week. It’s estimated that downstream manufacturers’ capacities have grown 10%-20%. Since old polysilicon stock clearance hasn’t been completed, this week’s polysilicon spot prices dropped 0.53% to $18.7/kg.

Due to the price reduction requested by downstream cell clients and lower polysilicon prices, wafer prices remained weak. Super high-efficiency multi-si wafer prices decreased 0.55% to $0.905/piece. High-efficiency multi-si wafer prices reached $0.86/piece and mono-si wafer dropped 0.91% to $1.09/piece.

High-efficiency multi-si cell prices declined 0.93% to $0.32/w.

While Taiwan multi-si cell prices dropped 0.96% to $0.31/w, Chinese multi-si cells declined to $0.30/w. Module demand from China turned weak, but demand for high-efficiency modules increased. Price for 250W multi-si module slightly dropped to $0.561/w; average price for 265W mono-si modules is $0.621/w.