As reported by Canal Solar, the rise in electronics consumption during the Covid-19 pandemic and the outbreaks of the disease in Southeast Asia were the main factors in the shortage in the supply of semiconductor chips in global industry.
This situation generated a mismatch in the price and delivery of this product, impacting the production of photovoltaic inverters. Now, the market is experiencing another shortage problem, this time of passive components, such as capacitors, resistors and inductors, for example.
Due to lockdowns in Malaysia and Indonesia, where most of Japan's well-known aluminum capacitors are made, factories at Chemi-Con, Nichicon and Rubycon were shut down for most of July and August this year. The three companies together control about 50% of the capacitor segment and are expected, according to the technology website TechPowerUp, that the current situation in Malaysia will lead to a reduction in remittances by 30 to 60%.
“We know that the industry is suffering greatly from the lack of purified silicon and microchips, but what is new now is the lack of capacitors, which are essential for the inverter to function. In fact, a good part of the cost of the inverter comes precisely from the capacitor bank”, said Mateus Vinturini, specialist in photovoltaic systems.
“And in this case, the affected companies are large manufacturers, recognized for their quality. Therefore, it is to be expected that such companies may have difficulties with the supply of these items,” he explained.
In Vinturini's view, it is not known whether the price of solar will be affected by the shortage of passive components, “but this is another of the elements that came as a consequence of the coronavirus crisis and the large increase in demand for computers and renewable energy sources ”, he concluded.
Increase in demand
Another factor that is contributing to this lack of components is the increase in demand. According to DigiTimes – a daily newspaper for the semiconductor, electronics, computer and communications industries in Taiwan and the Greater China region – several Taiwanese manufacturers saw annual revenue growth of 20% or more in the first half of 2021.
