Forbes has some insight on Trina's announcement:
Other than 24-hour sunshine, what the solar energy industry really needs is polysilicon, used to make the light-converting cells at the heart of the business. Unlike sunshine, supplies of polysilicon are expanding after a period of scarcity.
...Cowen analyst Rob Stone said that contract terms for polysilicon were becoming more favorable, with prepayments declining to 5.0% to 10.0% of the contract value from as much as 20.0%. Previously, solar companies had to have significant working capital to fund the supply downpayments. With the cost and availability of long-term contracts improving since the end of 2007, the need to increase internal polysilicon capacity is reduced....MORE
