KARACHI: Extreme panel imports amid falling costs in China have inspired aggressive solar energy system installations by shoppers throughout the nation to cut back their inflated energy payments.
Photo voltaic panel sellers are busier than final 12 months, whereas sellers of energy mills and Uninterrupted Energy Provide (UPS) have nonetheless been ready for the consumers to show up.
A number of years again, UPS used to rule the market when battery costs had been additionally decrease. Now at Regal Chowk and in different areas, sellers stated shoppers are hardly demanding UPS as bustling gross sales of photo voltaic panels have ruined UPS demand.
The company sector, industries, instructional establishments, and petrol pumps are additionally changing to photo voltaic techniques to save lots of overhead prices.
A photo voltaic panel supplier at Regal Chowk stated {that a} 5kW system, together with battery, inverter and set up expenses, now prices Rs 700,000-750,000 in opposition to over Rs1.1 million final 12 months. A 3kW system is now accessible at Rs400,000-450,000 in opposition to Rs500,000 the earlier 12 months.
Nevertheless, within the final one or two days, some sellers have began charging Rs5-8 per watt extra for photo voltaic panels.
Karachi Digital Sellers Affiliation (KEDA) Senior Vice-President Saleem Memon stated some sellers had minimize the speed to Rs36 per watt a number of days again from Rs40 however once more reverted to the outdated price on surging demand.
He stated the photo voltaic panel value is now Rs40 per watt, in comparison with Rs125-130 per watt final 12 months. Consequently, a 10kW photo voltaic system now prices Rs1m, in comparison with round Rs2m the earlier 12 months, whereas a 15kW system is on the market at Rs1.5m in comparison with Rs3m.
Expensive inverters and batteries
With no value drop within the inverter, he stated a 3kVA inverter is on the market at Rs50,000-55,000 whereas 5kVA inverter carries a value of Rs300,000.
“In 2023, the imports of photo voltaic panels totalled 4,000 gigawatts (GW), however this determine has already been surpassed by a giant margin in simply three months,” he stated, including that customers are benefiting from cheaper panels however are nonetheless ready for a minimize in battery and inverter costs as this could vastly assist folks set up solar energy system to beat excessive electrical energy payments.
“Photo voltaic panels are the one strategy to do away with insufferable Ok-Electrical payments,” Saleem stated, urging the federal government to supply subsidies to the shoppers who set up photo voltaic panels at their residences.
He stated the market is going through a glut-like state of affairs in photo voltaic panels as value falls in China and rupee stability within the final six to seven months have additionally inspired traders to make bulk imports, forcing many photo voltaic panel sellers with higher-priced shares to promote panels underneath value.
“After permitting opening letters of credit score (LCc), merchants are nonetheless opening contemporary LCs for extra photo voltaic panel imports,” he stated.
“I see a vibrant demand prospect for photo voltaic panels sooner or later given the rising value of grid electrical energy being supplied by energy distribution firms,” he stated.
Providing a special view, Pakistan Photo voltaic Affiliation Senior Vice-Chairman Mohammad Zakir Ali stated that in 2022, there was a requirement for 1.7GW, which rose to 4GW in 2023. Within the first 5 months of 2024, he claimed that imports had swelled to 8GW.
He stated the decline within the value of photo voltaic panels to Rs40 from Rs130 per watt has introduced down the general value of photo voltaic panel techniques by not less than 50pc in comparison with June 2023, however the costs of inverters and batteries are unchanged.
“The present value of photo voltaic panels is nearly on a par with photo voltaic panel costs in China, which have additionally dropped by 20pc within the final 12 months, thus encouraging merchants to proceed opening letters of credit score (LCs) for future imports,” he claimed.
“Our gross sales have doubled from final 12 months,” Zakir stated, including that demand goes greater than provide as persons are perturbed over skyrocketing energy payments.
Printed in Daybreak, Might nineteenth, 2024