Company: ALCE
Filing Date: 2025-01-27
Form Type: S-1
Source: 0001213900-25-007054
Chunk: 64

Company: Alternus Clean Energy, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-01-27
Form: S-1
Chunk 64
---
 solar cells, which are responsible for capturing the energy from the sun and turning it into electricity in solar energy systems. Polysilicon is largely produced in China, but factory shutdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic caused the price of the raw material to spike. Solar modules also include glass casing at the front of the module, which protects the solar cells, there has been recent growing demand for bifacial solar modules, which produce energy from both sides of the module, requiring glass on both sides of the solar module, as opposed to just on the front. In 2018, China, the largest producer of solar glass, imposed restrictions on glass production due to concerns about the required energy consumption. With increasing demand for solar modules, and for solar glass specifically, the restricted production of glass has been unable to meet the demand, causing the cost of solar glass to soar. In December 2020, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) indicated that it would ease restrictions on the production of solar glass. While solar glass supply is expected to remain constrained short-term, increased capacity due to these eased restrictions should expand supply later this year and reduce prices. Semiconductor chips are a key component of inverters, which convert the direct current (DC) energy produced by solar modules into usable alternating current (AC) energy. Inverters are also used for battery storage systems to convert storable DC energy to usable AC energy and vice versa. The use of semiconductor chips is not isolated to the solar industry; they are also crucial components of many other technologies, including cars, computers, and smartphones. Due to COVID-19 related factory shutdowns, manufacturing of semiconductor chips decreased in early 2020, and as factories began to reopen, demand for products containing semiconductor chips surged. The shortages of these materials and attendant price increases may affect our distribution of solar products and our installation of solar energy systems, and future increases in the price of silicon or other materials and components could result in an increase in costs to us, price increases to our customers or reduced margins. 31 A material reduction in the retail price of electricity charged by electric utilities or other retail electricity providers would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Decreases in the retail price of electricity from electric utilities or from other retail electric providers, including other renewable energy sources such as larger-scale solar energy systems, could make our offerings less economically attractive. The price of electricity from utilities could decrease as a result of:

| ● | the construction                                                                                                                   
 of a significant number of