Silicon Crash Shows China’s Relentless Domination of Solar
The price of polysilicon, the main ingredient in solar panels, has halved, offering relief to the renewable energy industry — but US-China tensions could still get in the way.
Polysilicon fragments.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergWelcome to today’s edition of Elements, Bloomberg’s energy and commodities newsletter. Bloomberg Opinion’s Liam Denning examines the recent plunge in polysilicon prices. Elsewhere, Russia is looking to squeeze cash out of state-run commodity producers to fund its war in Ukraine. If you’re reading this on the web, you can sign up to get the email here.
Bewildered oil and gas bulls can perhaps draw on some schadenfreude from the freefall in solar power’s version of the upstream. Since the start of December, the average spot price for photovoltaic-grade polysilicon, the main ingredient for manufacturing solar cells, has almost halved according to an index compiled by PVInsights.