Solar Supply Glut Crushes Margins But Buildout Booming

It’s a good news, bad news situation for solar right now. On the one hand, annual installations are continuing to break records, with China set to build almost as much solar this year as the entire world rolled out in 2022. But on the other hand, the industry is suffering from a supply glut, weighing on the prices and margins of module makers. What is driving China’s boom and will the global momentum continue? Are there any underestimated threats to growth beyond grid bottlenecks?

On today’s show, Dana sits down with Jenny Chase, lead solar analyst at BloombergNEF. Together, they discuss the latest outlook for solar, the onshoring of US production and whether its modules can be competitive against cheaper foreign producers, and the role solar can play in ambitions to triple global renewables capacity by the end of the decade.

Complimentary BNEF research on the trends driving the transition to a lower-carbon economy can be found at BNEF<GO> on the Bloomberg Terminal, on bnef.com or on the BNEF mobile app.

Links to research notes from this episode:

Global PV Market Outlook, 4Q 2023 - https://www.bnef.com/insights/32793

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