The International Photovoltaic Equipment Association (IPVEA), a global trade organization supporting solar and energy storage professionals, has announced a new initiative - "IPVEA study on optimizing the worldwide solar PV supply chain" - to maximize the potential for PV commerce in all corners of the world.

IPVEA is partnering with Solar PV Consulting to embark on research whose aim is globally stimulate and meet demand for solar PV installations.

IPVEA and Solar PV Consulting experts estimate that the solar PV industry currently is losing annually an estimated USD$400-500 million, due to an un-optimized supply chain. Projected losses can exceed USD$1 billion by 2018* if nothing is done to improve the way the industry does business (*based on IHS forecast that annual installations will surpass 100 GW in 2018).

"It's imperative we draw the industry's collective attention into the field of supply chain/value chain management, the backbone of any robust global operating organization," says Bryan Ekus, Managing Director of IPVEA. "Stable processes that can be easily scalable are the key to support global rapid sales expansion," he adds.

Fatima Toor, Research Analyst, Solar Components Intelligence at Lux Research and Co-Chairwoman of the Supervisory Industry and Experts Committee of the study, comments:

"Solar PV industry is projected to grow significantly in the next few years - in terms of volumes and diversity of new markets. Coinciding with this growth new supply chain challenges are certain to emerge for solar companies, rightfully concerned about unnecessary spending and potential loss of credibility with stakeholders such as investors, EPCs (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) and end customers, all of whom strive to avoid delays in delivery."

Laura Azpilicueta, Global Sales and Marketing Director at EVASA, Advisory Board Member of IPVEA and Co-Chairwoman of the Committee, comments of the study: "IPVEA, an action- and results-driven business organization, would like to help its members and the whole solar industry community to find and understand the bottlenecks in the current solar PV industry supply chain.

"Thus, our creation of a discussion platform will find possible solutions and help companies optimize their own supply chains. Lowering solar industry costs all around will result in solar become fully competitive with other sources of energy. Hence, the entire industry wins."

IPVEA will conduct the study with support of Solar PV Consulting and leading experts in the field.The study will be executed under the governance of IPVEA's Supervisory Industry and Experts Committee, composed by industry leaders both from IPVEA and non-IPVEA member companies from the entire value chain and well-recognized solar PV industry experts.

Solar PV Consulting is collecting the data on behalf of IPVEA, and following tabulation of the data, will make recommendations - together with the Supervisory Industry and Experts Committee - designed to remove the bottlenecks.

All information collected by IPVEA and Solar PV Consulting will only be used for the purpose of the study. It is strictly confidential and will not be disclosed to any third party.

The results of the survey will be revealed at "Solar Business Leaders Lunch," on May 19th in Shanghai, China during the 8th Annual SNEC (2014) International Photovoltaic Power Generation Conference and Exhibition. The lunch is being created by IPVEA, with support from the Solar Business Club, and SNEIA, the local Chinese solar association.