The price of polysilicon just keeps dropping (it’s now $35/kg as of Oct. 31st, down from $475/kg in 2008), which has the double effect of lowering the price of solar PV panels and destroying any solar company that invested in a tech that would compete with polysilicon panels. A study is now emerging from the China Nonferrous Metals Industrial Association indicating that 90 percent of polysilicon plants in China risk closing due to the price drops. This could force Chinese panel makers to import polysilicon from abroad or ramp up their own production. It’s been a crazy year for the solar industry but the one silver lining of all this disruption is that the sun is free and solar panels just keep getting cheaper.