Solar industry slump continues

Bloomberg:
Polysilicon, the raw material used to make most solar panels, is forecast to fall another 9 percent from its lowest in a decade as a supply glut narrows margins throughout the industry.
The average spot price of the material will finish this year at about $22.10 a kilogram, according to the median of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. The price, which four years ago topped $475, tumbled about 70 percent in the 12 months to $24.27 on April 16, the lowest since at least 2002.
 The drop hurts most for poly manufacturers led by Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. and Wacker Chemie AG. (WCH) It may ease pressure on margins at panel makers such as Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP) and LDK Solar Co. (LDK), which were unprofitable last year. The result is expanding a shakeout that bankrupted at least eight companies including Solyndra LLC last year. 
“We see massive oversupply in polysilicon,” Jesse Pichel, an analyst for Jefferies Group Inc. (JEF), said by e-mail. “Poly prices will continue to fall,” he said, estimating that the spot price may drop into “the teens.” 
Renewable Energy Corp. ASA, a Norwegian maker of polysilicon, wafers, cells and modules, today reported a wider- than-estimated first-quarter loss due to declining prices. 
The company said industry-wide overcapacity keeps putting pressure on prices and “severe” margin pressure on most market participants. REC will close down all wafer production in Norway and has no plans to expand polysilicon output. Wafers, or thin slices of polysilicon, are used to make photovoltaic cells, the basic component in most solar panels....
The demand for this product appears to be grossly overestimated.  The idea that millions of jobs would be created by support for a product that is not efficient enough to compete with traditional energy led to significant miscalculations.  It is a world wide slump but it is one where Obama has shown himself to be a poor portfolio manager.

As an example of the differences in energy produced an Exxon-Mobil engineer found that the energy in one gallon of gasoline is enough to charge an iPhone for 20 years.  Alternative energy sources just are not that powerful or efficient.

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