Solar markets across the world are going through a tough period. Trade disputes and policy uncertainties have caused huge loss and forced several manufacturers to shut down their businesses.
So far, only big players are able to withstand the tough market conditions arising out of these uncertainties and price fluctuation.
Of late First Solar, a leading solar manufacturer in the U.S., said it will reconsider investments in Australia because of policy uncertainty including that around the Renewable Energy Target which is currently under review by a panel appointed by the federal government, a report from ABC Online said.
The company is currently building a $450 million plant for AGL Energy in western NSW.
In another occasion recently Kane Thornton, the deputy chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, also remarked uncertainty over the future of the RET was hindering investment in renewables.
These responses come in the wake of dip in Australia’s ranking in renewable energy investments. According to the research by Frankfurt school, Bloomberg and the UN environment in 2013, Australia made $US4.4bn in new investment in renewable energy, such as solar, wind and geothermal, a 0.1 percent decrease on the previous year, pushing it to the 9th rank in renewable energy investments.
Australia was already left behind countries such as Germany and Japan, which have less exposure to sunlight or wind.
“Over 100 countries have a target to expand renewables, so if we reduce our target, we’d slip very quickly out of the top 10,” Thornton warned.
Considering that the policy outlook is bleak over the next five years, First Solar vice-president of business development Jack Curtis said, “We really need to look at what does the next five years look like from a broader policy backdrop perspective and what comes after these projects and whether the investment should continue to be made.”
Curtis said projects which reached financial close a year ago would no longer be certain to go ahead.
“That’s [Australia’s business and political environment] obviously changed quite dramatically since the election. There’s now a much greater deal of uncertainty around future projects like this,” said Curtis.
In another recent such instance, SunEdison, the St. Peters, Missouri-based solar energy company, dropped a 20 megawatt (MW) project in India on supply concerns, officials at SunEdison said.