Priced Increases.... | on ElectriciansForums

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B

Berneray

Do you think we are seeing the end of panel dumping.....

Our wholesaler has just warned me of a 10% increase in the price of our preferred panel the 833 Gallium....That will be hard to pass onto the consumer in the competitive market so I guess the search is on for a suitable alternative...
 
I think most of the recent panel price increases are driven by the GBP/Euro exchange rate causing wholesaler's costs to increase - a lot of product tends to be bought from Europe in Euro....

10% sounds about right from what I have seen, for some panels.....The 8.33 mono gallium panels look pretty good to me and seem to have a couple of key features that should allow you to offer/up-sell them over cheaper, generic c-Si alternatives, are you really going to change because of a 10% cost increase? Just curious, not sure how much you are paying of course. Have you looked at Romag's offerings? They are on a cost-reduction drive at the moment and, being manufactured in the UK, they may not have put any price increases on as yet.
 
Funny you should mention them, we're just in the process of launching an installation partnership with Romag after making just that assessment earlier in January, plus having inquiries about BIPV and solar slates, which they also make.

We arranged a factory visit a couple of weeks back, and I'm pretty impressed to find that they'd spent ÂŁ2 million late last year on an electroluminescense machine to dramatically improve their quality control, as well as increased flash testing and automation of the soldering process.

They've also dramatically improved the quality of their mono panels using the new higher performance N-type cells similar to those used in the Yingli Panda, and Sunpower ranges (though not as efficient as sunpower), for better low light and high temperature performance, plus all black for the same prices as white back sheets, and pricing that's really very competitive. IMO they're now up there quality wise with the best in the world for the 250Wp panels, when I really didn't rate their panels when I looked at them a couple of years back.

Only thing is that they say they're being a bit picky about who they work with as they really want to be working with companies who're going to be able to offer their entire product range of BIPV, solar slates, in roof mounting etc as well as the standard panels, as they view this as insulating them a bit from the massive demand swings of the more standard panel market, which actually was what we initially approached them about.

I understand that Romag are mainly selling direct to installers, though from Sibert's post above, I'm wondering if they're now stocking them?
 
Romag panels? Yeah, I dismissed them as being not up to scratch a couple of years back. Interesting to see that they've improved since then.

Buying British is very appealing for a number of reasons - IF they can match the Chinese quality.
 
Using a British made panel would be a distinct selling point.....

But its having credible reviews and tests to back it up.

ipa panels are good.

there used in hospitals in uk.

the new ones look the same as the old ones that have been there years


i cant remember there original name though. it will say by handover controls but they were bought out by schneider years ago
 
@Gavin - no, we're not stocking Romag panels. We know them very well though as have worked with them as a supplier of components used in the fabrication of their modules. We started to supply them just before Gentoo took over and have seen them move through their own investment and improvement curve in an attempt to maintain viability as a UK manufacturer to an industry that has been increasingly sourcing lower-cost product from the Far-East.

If we do end up reselling panels/mounting kits at some point then we will strongly consider representing a UK manufacturer too - which one remains to be seen.

From a cost point of view, the Romag offering is probably only going to be viable if they focus on selling direct for relatively large projects. However, time will tell...
 

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