About the report
The purpose of this report is to provide a sample of the market intelligence available via PV hardware trade activity on the EnergyBin exchange platform. Our goal is to contribute data to the solar industry that can be used to help make informed decisions about equipment trade in the secondary market.
This report analyzes data based on the following activities:
- Common reasons for buying and selling
- Product categories listed for sale
- Requests to buy products
- Major brands listed by sellers and requested by buyers
- Module pricing
- Module availability
The report timeline represents site activity from the second half of last year (H2 2024). It compares findings from EnergyBin’s 2024 PV Module Price Index for c-Si module pricing and availability.
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Key Findings
About EnergyBin
EnergyBin is a global exchange for PV professionals to connect, access market intelligence, and buy & sell wholesale solar equipment.
The PV professionals who make up EnergyBin’s membership represent the industry’s downstream supply chain from manufacturers to lifecycle solutions providers (resellers, repairers, remanufacturers, recyclers, etc.). Members oversee projects in the residential, commercial, agricultural, industrial, and small-scale utility markets. At present, over 560 wholesale buyers and sellers comprise EnergyBin’s exclusive trading community.
Common reasons to buy and sell on EnergyBin
PV hardware traded on EnergyBin is considered to be secondary market goods. Exchanges like EnergyBin bring solar companies together to help them gain visibility and build relationships with each other. Many PV companies who are connecting on EnergyBin are acting as both buyers and sellers.
The secondary market consists of new and refurbished PV hardware goods. On EnergyBin, 94 percent of the goods (modules, inverters, electrical & structural BOS parts, and storage/batteries) listed for resale in H2 2024 were new, while just 6 percent were used or refurbished.
The following scenarios explain where these goods are flowing from:
- Remarketed products that primary buyers aren’t purchasing, including clearance, discontinued goods, closeouts, surplus, and miscellaneous one-offs
- Asset liquidations from company acquisitions and bankruptcies
- Leftover products (new with warranty, yet never installed) from bulk purchases and project installations
- Products for resale (new with warranty, yet never installed) resulting from delayed, downsized, or cancelled projects
- Products for resale that are used, refurbished, or remanufactured and have no manufacturer warranty, but possibly have an assigned 3rd party warranty and/or service warranty
Sellers
Wholesale sellers on EnergyBin primarily seek to connect with pre-qualified wholesale buyers. Many desire to form lasting relationships with buyers who need large-volume quantities. They also come to access information on competitors’ pricing and product availability. Some aim to introduce products to new markets.
Additionally, sellers join EnergyBin to promote their value-added services. Some provide storage space to contractors and will drop ship equipment to project worksites. Some offer lines of credit. And some buy back excess and used equipment if the material has resale value. Several suppliers are dedicated to making wholesale buying possible and accessible to all kinds of installers and resellers, regardless of their size and capacity.
Buyers
Wholesale buyers on EnergyBin come looking for an alternative sourcing solution. They seek to efficiently request price quotes from multiple vetted sellers. Many want access to bulk order discounts. Several need to locate hardware that their primary vendors either don’t carry or don’t have in stock. Others search EnergyBin for replacement parts and repair services. Some want to connect to recycling partners. Buyers who act as resellers to consumers aim to buy low on EnergyBin.
Buyers = Sellers
In review of the report findings, don’t presume that a member of EnergyBin is only a buyer or a seller. The EnergyBin platform exists to support wholesale solar equipment brokering. This means that a member can buy and sell based on their customers’ needs, which often change from one day to the next.
For example, a supplier who joins EnergyBin with the intention to sell may also take on a buying role for a customer in need of replacement modules or inverters that the supplier no longer stocks.
Or an installer who joins EnergyBin to primarily buy equipment may have leftover equipment from a project that they then list for resale on the exchange. Furthermore, an installer may have a customer with an existing solar array who decides to upgrade their technology. The installer handles the decommissioning, determines that the used modules have resale value, and remarkets them on EnergyBin.
These scenarios are just a few opportunities that EnergyBin members are actively pursuing on our exchange.
Product categories for sale
The report analyzed a sample of 2,650 Want-to-Sell (WTS) Broadcasts posted to the EnergyBin platform to determine product category breakdown.
In H2 2024, modules remained the dominant product category representing 69 percent of the total PV hardware for sale, up from 62 percent over the previous six months. Inverters represented 14 percent and electrical balance-of-system (BOS) components were 8 percent.
Electrical BOS components include optimizers, rapid shutdown devices, cables, wiring, switches, gateways, adaptors, connectors, transformers, monitoring devices, and communications devices. Structural BOS comprises all hardware components related to racking and tracking. Miscellaneous materials for resale on EnergyBin ranged from drones to EV residential chargers.
Storage and batteries represented 3 percent of the total products for resale, down from 6 percent in H1 2024. This change is by no means an indicator of demand. But it may suggest that energy storage system resale has slowed. Often, the reason behind the remarketing of a storage system has to do with a previous customer cancelling their order leaving the installer to find a new buyer.
Requests to buy products
The report analyzed a sample of 880 Want-to-Buy (WTB) Broadcasts posted to the EnergyBin platform to assess buyer needs by product category breakdown. Like sales posts, requests for modules represented the largest category at 66 percent followed by inverters at 13 percent.
Note that it’s common for buyers to conduct searches on the platform and contact sellers directly rather than posting a WTB Broadcast. Therefore, it should not be assumed that a smaller sample size of WTB Broadcasts corresponds to fewer buyers than sellers on EnergyBin. Furthermore, many members dually buy and sell on the exchange.
Common reasons to buy
Of the total WTB Broadcasts, buying inquiries noted these common reasons to buy:
What’s clear in this report’s findings is that volume buyers are accessing EnergyBin to source PV hardware. 41 percent requested quotes for new projects, and 80 percent of the quotes were specifically for modules. 57 percent were sourcing for commercial projects of all sizes (up to 1 megawatt). 23 percent were sourcing for residential projects, and 20 percent were sourcing for small-scale utility projects (1 – 5 megawatts).
Aside from new project hardware quotes, the number of WTB Broadcasts attributed to finding replacement parts was the most common reason to buy representing 38 percent. This finding indicates a growing desire to extend the lifespan of PV systems rather than resort to new technology upgrades or at least make the effort to find replacement parts before pursuing other options. Prematurely repowering may not be as feasible to the bottom line nor as friendly to the environment.
Brands in demand
Both sales listings and buying requests shed light on module and inverter brands in demand. WTS Broadcasts reported a total of 47 brands and WTB Broadcasts listed a total of 37 brands. Brands ranged from established major players to new market entrants to discontinued manufacturers. Due to the nature of the secondary market, product availability is always in flux.
Buyers are looking for top quality products and tend to prefer Tier 1 brands. However, 31 percent of WTB Broadcasts stated “Any” in the manufacturer field, which means they aren’t always limited to purchasing specific brand names as they are concerned with compatibility.
This is likely related to locating replacement parts, particularly when original brands in older PV systems may no longer be available in the market. To respond to maintenance and operations demand of older systems, some secondary market players have expanded their service offerings to include repair and remanufacturing solutions. As more systems age, these opportunities will increase.
PV module prices by technology
PV module pricing and supply data are taken from the 2024 PV Module Price Index.
At the close of H2 2024, the average price for All Black modules slightly decreased from $0.238 per watt in Junw to $0.212 per watt in December. However, average prices for Bifacial and Monofacial modules increased from H1 2024 by 22 percent and 3 percent respectively. The Bifacial increase was primarily affected by new U.S. tariff duties that went into play last June. Tariffs have historically caused U.S. module prices to fluctuate and have somewhat incubated domestic prices from free falling global lows.
Additionally, prices within the secondary market fluctuate beyond the effects of geopolitical factors. As can be seen in the following table, prices of modules listed for resale on EnergyBin ranged from low to high values.
Over the course of the six months, All Black modules varied by as much as 32 cents’ difference between high and low values. Bifacial and Monofacial variances of 23 cents and 28 cents weren’t as steep but still illustrate price instability.
Low-end prices are often a result of an urgent need to liquidate stock where sellers are willing to do so at a loss. High-end prices are marked by demand versus supply for any given module style. For example, if demand is high for a “Made in America” module, yet supply falls short of demand, then the price will sky-rocket. The same is true for some discontinued modules that are highly sought after for replacement parts or array add-ons, for example LG modules.
Price averages on EnergyBin in H2 2024 were lower than the overall U.S. market, where the national average was $0.33 per watt at the end of quarter three. As previously mentioned, tariffs helped to maintain a hefty 100 percent premium over the global spot price of $0.11/Wdc for Monofacials.
This finding shows the importance for wholesale buyers and sellers to incorporate the secondary market into their price research processes. Even for those with strong vendor relationships, leveraging the secondary market as an additional sales channel and sourcing solution will boost profits.
For example, closeout deals result in significant cost savings, like the lot of 200 All Black 440 watt Emmvee modules that listed for $0.061 in Q3 2024, well below market value. The seller was able to move stock that was losing dollars in unwanted holding costs and turn over the inventory. The buyer snagged a hot deal at a fraction of the average All Black price.
PV module availability
Secondary market supply in the U.S. tends to ebb and flow due to market conditions. What’s clear from the report is that secondary market supply will continue to largely consist of excess modules that are new with warranty. In 2024, 95 percent of the inventory for resale was excess stock that flowed from surplus and clearance closeouts, remarketing efforts, delayed, downsized, or cancelled projects, asset liquidations, and leftovers from project installations.
With respect to module supply volume, quarters two and four saw the greatest uptick in resale listings. The rise in quarter two was likely due to the anticipation of the extension and increase of Section 301 tariffs and the termination of the two-year tariff exemption on imports from Southeast Asia in June. Additionally, the distribution among module categories shifted mid-year when All Black and Bifacials eclipsed Monofacials.
Regarding the supply of Legacy POLY modules, volumes remained low at 1 percent of total modules for resale. The limited supply of Legacy POLY modules shouldn’t be a surprise as manufacturers have long since transitioned to mono production. At this stage in module evolution, it would be easier to find refurbished POLY modules rather than new.
But sourcing secondhand POLY modules may also prove difficult at this time as Used modules only comprised 5 percent of the total modules for resale. Both module categories took a downturn when new module prices fell at a rapid pace last year. As buyers opted to upgrade their PV systems, decommissioned modules were disposed of – either landfilled or recycled – rather than refurbished. The cost to refurbish would have pushed their prices above that of new, higher efficiency modules.
Although Used module supply is currently minimal, demand exists for replacement parts. As previously mentioned in this report, 38 percent of WTB Broadcasts stated a need for replacement parts. It’s unclear how many of these buyers would consider Used modules; however, 30 percent noted that compatibility on dimensions, wattage, and other specifications was most important.
On EnergyBin, 2024 saw an increase in demand for Used modules from discontinued Tier 1 models ranging from 300 watts and up. Such modules attract buyers when sellers confirm power output and degradation rates through standard testing. If power yields remain high and degradation rates are low (no more than 0.5 to 1.9 percent per year), they tend to exceed buyers’ expectations. These factors tend to exist in modules that have been deployed for ten years or less. However, some modules that are older than ten years may still produce power at or above the threshold of 80 percent efficiency, and therefore, may fetch a feasible resale value.
Conclusion
The findings in this report support the business case for a robust and sustainable secondary market for PV hardware reuse, resale, and recycling. Using the EnergyBin trading exchange as a gauge for this case, we see a network that is growing as smart companies seek to expand their business in the secondary market. Opportunities to invest in asset recovery and remarketing, especially for excess modules stored in warehouses, are widely available to the savvy reseller.
Additionally, EnergyBin is a resource for market intelligence with respect to pricing and availability of PV hardware that has fallen out of traditional distribution channels. This report concludes that a secondary market exists for both new and used PV hardware, and solar companies would be wise to integrate the secondary market into their sales and sourcing processes as an overall strategy to boost profits.
More Resources
Browse more articles, reports, case studies, and webinar recordings on buying and selling wholesale solar equipment in the secondary market in our Resources portal.