EDITORS I VIEW
David Ridsdale Editor in Chief
Selling energy freedom not financial packages
It looks as if 2012 will be the year that the global solar and PV industry has to try a novel approach and sell energy products to consumers. Of course some areas have been doing this for some time but thanks to generous subsidies offered by governments around the world the truth is that many companies have been behaving as if they were selling financial products and setting themselves up as alternatives to banking and financial services. The latter part of last year saw a dramatic turn around in nearly every region offering subsidies. Much of this was to do with prices falling faster than expected but even the reasons behind this are not clear cut.
If you were to ask a certain German manufacturer, currently on a mission to take on Chinese manufacturers in court rooms around the world, then the answer would be that the price reduction is false and only due to a Chinese conspiracy to undercut the rest of the world. The USA part of this argument has jumped through the initial hoops and the USA government has decided there is a case and is now deciding how to punish Chinese importers into the country. The questions that will soon be asked depends on the impact such action will have on global prices. Especially as one of the main industry goals was to reduce prices.
Without the financial incentives of long term financial gain on PV installations, the industry has to face the fact that in many areas PV and solar have not been sold very effectively and the result is that in many places the public perception is not positive and in some cases hostile to solar and PV technology. As much as industry fingers like to point to governments as the blame for the roller coaster ride the industry has been on, the truth is that the industry has been too busy fighting amongst itself to tackle the bigger issues of where solar fits into a renewable energy mix of the future.
Thin film fights with silicon who fight with organics who fight with someone and so on. Everyone claims to have a solution but rarely defines what is the challenge they are fixing. Many companies still present a one fit for all position which is patently not true in regions with differing solar radiance. Having relied so strongly on subsidies as a selling point the industry has not heeded the negative media that developed as a reaction to solar’s growth. In some regions the industry has yet to realise that part of moving forward will be developing a more positive understanding of PV potential to consumers and ultimately the end customer.
Selling a renewable energy product is not the same as selling a financial package. With accusations of market manipulation and court cases between regions the global perception of the industry continues to decline with gross generalisations of solar’s capacities going unchallenged in the public eye. The challenge for 2012 is not as simple as surviving post subsidies but reversing tainted perceptions of the industry. While the industry was being attacked for its subsidised growth there was no retaliation to the fact that the oil companies in many regions continue to enjoy subsidy support at a much higher level than solar has ever received.
Solar and PV was introduced as a method of sustainable energy production reducing the fuel poverty crisis afflicting our world. These are long term solutions and the industry needs to get a great deal smarter in how it presents itself to consumers and ultimately the end customer. Not all companies will survive this change but that is more a result of an over subscribed market attracted by the allure of government support.
Issue II 2012 I
www.solar-international.net 3
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