The joint bargaining coordination in a photovoltaic supply chain

The photovoltaic (PV) industry encounters a serious oversupply problem, which has caused a fierce competition among the crystalline silicon module suppliers to get the business from the PV system assemblers. This paper has developed a mechanism to coordinate a c-Si module supplier and a PV system assembler considering the government subsidy. A centralized, a decentralized, and a joint bargaining coordination decision models in a PV supply chain are formulated and analyzed. Using the world PV industry data, the numerical and sensitivity analyses are conducted to assess the impact of key parameters on the decision models. The research result has shown that a joint bargaining coordination mechanism is optimal for the studied PV supply chain. Both a PV system assembler and a c-Si module supplier gain more profit from the joint bargaining coordination model than that from either the centralized or the decentralized decision model. Policies for the sustainable PV industry development are also recommended. Published by AIP Publishing.