Solar Crunch: Solar Power Giants Warn of Delays Amid Supply Chain Disruptions

Companies including Longi Green Energy Technology Co. and Trina Solar Co. said in an open letter they hoped customers would consider delaying installations and avoid a rush to meet end-of-the-year deadlines.

The pleas come amid soaring costs for materials such as glass, adhesive film and polysilicon, which has tripled this year. The cost increases and disruptions threaten to slow installations of the clean energy source just as world governments get more serious about fighting climate change.

“This imbalance will break the supply chain and seriously endanger the healthy and sustainable development of the industry,” the companies said in a statement.

The latest hit to the solar industry is the surging price of industrial silicon, the metal used to make polysilicon. Prices have surged 300% since August after a top producing region in China throttled back output amid a power crisis.

The signees, which also included JinkoSolar Holding Co., JA Solar Technology Co. and Risen Energy Co., combined to account for more than half of all solar panel production last year, according to BloombergNEF.