Although global capital spending this year in the photovoltaics (PV) supply chain is expected to fall to its lowest level since 2006, indications signal that the downturn in investment has hit bottom and that purchases of equipment may soon rebound.

Capital spending among PV companies is set to drop to $2.3 billion in 2013, down 36 percent from $3.6 billion in 2012, according to the PV Manufacturing & Capital Spending Tool from information and analytics provider IHS (NYSE: IHS). 

IHS (Englewood, Colorado, US) has released an analysis which concludes that expected EU tariffs will price Chinese solar photovoltaic (PV) modules out of the European market.

IHS calculates that tariffs will bring the average PV module price to USD 0.97 per watt in the EU, which will bring the IRR for some PV projects to below 7%. The company expects the greatest impacts to the utility-scale PV sector, and warns that the German market alone could be reduced by nearly 2 GW.

The industry guide “Inverter, Storage and PV System Technology 2013" provides a comprehensive overview of the players, market conditions and future prospects in the inverter, storage technology and system monitoring sector. It is aimed at project developers, system integrators, planners, utilities, grid operators, investors and financing experts from the photovoltaics industry interested in receiving detailed information on the topic. 

The UK solar PV market is making headlines again as its 500 MW of installed capacity accounted for 10% of the global installations in the first quarter of 2013. As a result, the UK market passed the 2 GigaWatt mark of cumulative installed solar capacity. 2012 hasn't been a bad year either. Government statistics confirm 779 MW of installed PV capacity in 2012. According to Solarbuzz, 11.3% of the UK’s electricity last year was generated from renewable energy sources.

The supplier base for photovoltaic (PV) inverters further fragmented in 2012, with the total market share of the 10 largest suppliers falling by more than 4 percentage points, according to the latest quarterly report from IMS Research, now part of IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS).