The falling price of crude oil has disrupted the global economy and hurt energy producing nations and big energy companies but many in the solar industry are starting to believe that this volatility could been a boon for PV power as the world realizes the need to shift to alternative energy.

The price of crude oil has fallen by more than 30% since the middle of the summer and most major international banks and energy researchers are predicting prices in the US$60-US$65 per barrel range for the coming future. With oil proving itself once again to be a highly volatile commodity and impacting on the global economy, renewables led by solar could step in.

"The fact that oil is so unpredictable is one of the reasons why we must move to renewable energy, which has a completely predictable cost of zero for fuel," urged Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change at the opening of the COP20 climate conference in Peru this week.

According to Deutsche Bank analyst Vishal Shah there will not be much impact from oil price weakness on solar power. In Japan, energy advisor to the government and senior fellow at Mitsui Global Strategic Studies Institute Takashi Hongo told Bloomberg that "renewables are supported by policies, and that is not something that will be amended quickly just because oil prices fall,"

suggesting there will be hardly any negative impact on the solar industry.

Still, there are some concerns that cheaper oil will mean that utility companies can lower prices for end consumers, thus underpricing solar. Lin Boqiang, director of the Energy Economics Research Center at China's Xiamen University, also warned that "if oil stays at current prices or weakens through the first half of next year, the impact on new energy would be massive,"

"Weakening oil prices would hamper the competitiveness of new energy."

Yet despite a handful of pessimistic voices, the majority of renewable insiders have taken a more optimistic view, arguing that oil's tumultuous week will only serve to strengthen governments', utilities' and consumers' resolve to embrace a more stable energy alternative.

Edited by ReneSola. Source: PV Magazine.