Canadian Solar Warns Of Panel Price Increase

Although a challenging year, Canadian Solar saw major growth in panel shipments in 2020 – but also warned of a price rise looming.

The company announced its financial results for the final quarter and full calendar year of 2020 on Friday, reporting 32% annual growth in total module shipments to 11.3 GW.

Commenting on the results, Chairman and CEO Dr. Shawn Qu said:

 “While 2020 was a tough year due to the pandemic, we remained focused on our long-term strategy of growth and delivered a robust set of results.”

Solar Panel Price Increase Ahead

There was some bad news for prospective solar buyers and project developers. According to Canadian Solar subsidiary CSI Solar President Yan Zhuang:

“We are approaching the bottom of the solar cost curve and the era of ever-declining solar module prices is largely behind us. In fact, in the near term, solar module prices will increase.”

Mr Zhuang mentioned elevated polysilicon prices and the increased cost of basic commodities among the culprits, which is assumed to mean components such as glass and frames that have also been in short supply. While the cost of going solar in Australia has continued to drop over the past 12 months thanks in part to a strong Aussie dollar, perhaps that won’t be enough to protect us and we’ll start seeing prices heading north soon.

Canadian Solar isn’t the only company to have mentioned putting up panel prices – Jinko Solar also warned about the issue very recently.

Solar Farms, Energy Storage

Elsewhere in Canadian Solar’s business, the company says it sold 1.4 GWp of projects globally during 2020 and it currently has a 20 GWp PV project pipeline.

The firm also won 1 GWh of battery storage contracts last year. Canadian Solar is bullish on its 2021 energy storage projects, with a project pipeline of 9 GWh and expectations it will capture approximately 10% market share in the U.S. this year. The company intends rapidly expanding its activities in all aspects of the energy storage market – utility scale, commercial and industrial, as well as home battery applications.

Canadian Solar Panels And Australia

Over the past 19 years or so, Canadian Solar has shipped more than 52GW of modules to customers in more than 150 countries including Australia, where they have been consistently popular. The company notes Australia was among its top five markets for shipments in the final quarter of last year.

Canadian Solar panel reviews here on SolarQuotes from local owners have generally been positive. From the 1,272 ratings currently, the company has scored an all-time rating of 4.7 out of 5, and 4.9 out of 5 over the last 6 months .

The firm is currently included on SQ’s trusted solar panel brands chart, towards the budget end of the spectrum.

Canadian Solar expects its global panel shipments to hit between 18 GW and 20 GW this year – another huge jump.

More from the Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Results Report can be found here.