Title of Dissertation: national renewable energy policy

Figure 4. 
International trade of renewable energy products, 2006-2015. 
Source: UN Comtrade, 
https://comtrade.un.org/data/
 
-
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
9,000
10,000
-
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
70,000
80,000
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Milli
o
n
s 
U
SD
Milli
o
n
s 
U
SD
Photosensitive semiconductor devices
Wind-powered electric generating sets

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Increasing trade of renewable energy products has contributed to reducing the 
cost of renewable energy by dropping the prices of the products. The overall prices of 
crystalline silicon solar modules have decreased in recent years. The prices of the 
modules have declined to 1.0-2.2 USD/watt from 1.5-2.9 USD/watt (Figure 5). The price 
gap between the modules from Japan and Western countries and those from China and 
emerging economies shows that the solar modules from China and emerging economies 
have contributed to dropping the prices of solar modules in the U.S. and Europe. The 
prices of wind turbine have also decreased since 2009 (Figure 6). Since wind turbine 
manufacturers from emerging countries including China have expanded production 
capacity, the competition between manufacturers has led to downward pressure to prices 
of wind turbines in recent years.
12
Figure 5.
Market prices of solar PV modules, 2009 Q4-2012 Q1. 
12
Taylor, Michael, Kathleen Daniel, Andrei Ilas and Eun Young So. 
Renewable Power 
Generation Cost in 2014
, Masdar City: IRENA, January 2015. 
https://www.irena.org/DocumentDownloads/Publications/IRENA_RE_Power_Costs_201
4_report.pdf.
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
2009
2010
2011
2012
U
SD/Wat
t
Europe High efficiency c-Si
Europe Japanese/Western c-Si
Europe Chinese major c-Si
Europe Emerging economies c-Si
US High efficiency c-Si
US Japanese/Western c-Si
US Chinese major c-Si
US Emerging economies c-Si

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Source: Renewable Energy Technologies: Cost Analysis Series, Volume 1: Power Sector, 
Issue 4/5: Solar Photovoltaics, IRENA, June 2012.