Solar demand booming due to high oil energy prices and supply chain, reports Birmingham NEC trade event
Kevin Holland's View From a Shed column
Last week, our industry held its annual trade event at the Birmingham NEC: 400 exhibitors, 200 speakers and three days of networking with over 12,000 delegates.
Next year, the show will take over a second hall for the 2023 exhibition as we've literally run out of room with the current space allocated. Our busiest exhibition to date and I've been attending this show for nearly 15 years now. Not sure I've experienced the buzz like this one before though.
Main talking point was the demand. Or 'the rise of renewables' to keep it topical. Every single installer, sales company and supplier reporting exactly the same thing. That is that we're all busier than ever, most have stopped advertising and many, including my own company have had to turn our 'contact-us' forms off to stop the deluge of calls and enquiries.
Demand has outstripped supply this year and it was around March / April when we started to see hold ups in the supply chain. As a small, local family business, we've gone from 2–3-week lead time to an astonishing 5–6-month lead time with dozens of local people all patiently waiting for their solar home energy systems to be installed.
We stopped attending the weekly market, turned off all online marketing, closed the website contact-us page and removed all company signage, and yet we still have an in box to keep us busy till Christmas next year, let alone this!
Why the demand and why the delays?
Well, the demand is obvious. People are now seeing for themselves exactly what our industry has been saying for over a decade.
Solar is the solution to the climate crisis, solar will help end the oil wars, solar will clean up the environment, it will help people save money and reduce several tonnes of carbon from the planet's atmosphere. Solar helps us create resilience which leads to energy security which will create a better future.
On the delays. Around this time last year, there was a climate induced flood in Malaysia. One of the three factories that produce the global supply of semiconductors was forced to close just at the same time massive demand was placed on all electronic industries as we came out of Covid.
Virtually every electrical device on the planet needs a semiconductor and there's not enough being made. And with the rapid switch away from fossils in the automotive industry, the global focus being on electric vehicles, that demand is now squeezing lithium and other battery tech production which all need semiconductors.
That's the global picture. Closer to home the delays are compounded by a weak pound which is driving up prices, high inflation which is driving up costs and the self-imposed trading barriers we erected when we decided to leave the world's biggest trading block back in 2016. The last time we 'boomed' as an industry, it was through the mismanagement of the old feed in tariff scheme coming to a close.
In those days, we could jump in a van, drive over Rotterdam, stock up and be back at home by tea time with a week's worth of kit. Not any more we can't.
As an industry we have more than doubled last year's accredited installation within the first nine months of this year. Our own company has seen around a 300%-400% increase in enquiries and we're running at around 250% increase in installations and with several dozens of clients pre booked for later this year and early next year already, we have been forced to close until we clear the backlog.
This is being replicated across the UK with many long-established companies shutting up shop with 'We'll be back in 2023’ notices on their websites.
And we will be.
