Jan 18 2010
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/986507/pv_tem_2009_photo) has announced the addition of the "PV TEM 2009: Photovoltaic Technology, Equipment & Materials" report to their offering.
For several years, the Photovoltaic (PV) industry was primarily seen as an outstanding financial investment, delivering a high-performance return-on-investment (ROI) with limited risk. The objectives were simply to adapt the production capacities to answer a high market demand. In this context, Polysilicon and wafer producers, cell and module manufacturers were assured to sell their entire production.
But 2009 has been quite particular as the financial crisis has not spared the PV industry. The credit crunch, lower-than-expected market growth, and a large product offer have in fact forced companies to be more innovative than ever. In this highly competitive market, only the companies able to provide better products at a lower price will succeed.
As a consequence the whole PV chain, from polysilicon producers to module manufacturers, is working on new technical solutions to reach grid parity and finally make PV a competitive renewable energy source. Government incentives as well as new power grid structure (e.g. smart grid) will contribute, in the coming years, in making PV a viable alternative to conventional energy sources such as coal or nuclear. As cost reduction has become one of the top priorities for equipment and material suppliers, we are today seeing them partnering with cell manufacturers to pull production cost down.
Worldwide investments in R&D as well as in cell production capacity have reached an unprecedented level. Cell manufacturers will start benefiting from economies of scale in the coming years, but innovation in the field of material and equipment will remain a key parameter to sustain the growth. Manufacturers will develop more and more new technologies based on well-established techniques from various industries such as semiconductor, display, printing, glass, etc.
Even with a slowdown in the fourth quarter of 2008, the market, boosted by demand for thin-film equipment, was incredibly high that year. Yole is estimating that total revenue exceeded 2.7 Billion euro.
Until the end of 2009 and during 2010, because of strong overcapacities, total revenue is forecast to decrease by 45% compared to 2008 to 1.5 Billion euro.
Market demand is forecast to come back after 2010 and will progressively impact the production sites by increasing the fab utilization rates. Investments in fab extensions and related equipment are expected to follow in 2011 although they will arrive with a slight time lag behind the demand increase.
Because Yole Développement is able to understand the complex mechanisms between market demand, production capacity and real production, this report will provide you with a clear, detailed, and consistent overview of the PV industry. It not only describes the industry in terms of market shares, but it also gives you the keys to grow your opportunities.
Since our last report, the industry landscape has been drastically modified:
A large number of companies invested in polysilicon manufacturing capacity:
1. Incumbents such as Hemlock, Wacker and REC are in the process of doubling or even tripling their production capacity while keeping a low manufacturing cost.
2. Motivated by a silicon shortage and high prepayments, a lot of new players have purchased Siemens-type equipment and entered the market in 2009: DC Chemical, LDK, GCL Poly Energy, etc.
3. We also observed new developments in:
- Low-cost technologies such as Fluidized Bed Reactor with players like AE polysilicon, MEMC, or Peaksun
- Upgraded metallurgical grade promoted by Becancour, 6N Silicon, Dow Corning, etc.