Retailers and wholesalers in the solar PV market have reported experiencing "unprecedented demand" in the month of November, which looks set to continue into December, the first month of the Australian summer. Solar system wholesaler, Solar Juice, said it had seen a "substantial surge in demand" in November, resulting in a "record month" in what was traditionally a period of "fairly soft" demand. "We're air-freighting inverters into the country from Germany at the moment to fulfill demand," Solar Juice sales director Andrew Burgess told RE over the phone on Thursday. "That's something we haven't done in 5 years. "We are already seeing (retailers) pushing really, really hard for supply," Burgess said. People are saying that they've got installation crews booked out to the last day of the year." The spike in demand, which Burgess says is coming largely from the commercial solar sector, is being put down to a number of factors, including changes to policy mechanisms - both federally and in a number of states - and the fall in cost of PV panels. The latter is the result of a global panel glut described by Bloomberg New Energy Finance as "a new era of substantial overcapacity" that could deliver prices as low as $US0.30c/Watt. In Australia this factor alone could provide impetus for a solar boom, particularly considering how comparatively low solar system prices are in this market already. Added to this is the flurry of activity created by the impending end of the solar bonus scheme in NSW - closely followed by Victoria - which is expected to see many households expand their existing (and long-since paid off) solar systems, and perhaps adding battery storage. Another policy lever that is being ratcheted down is the national STC multiplier rebate. That is, from January 31 2017, the deeming period will be dropped from 15 years to 14 years; and will drop another year, every year for the next 15 years. According to Nigel Morris, from solar retailer Roof Juice, the cost impact of ...Den vollständigen Artikel lesen ...