Mar 15 2010
The current report (2010 Edition) gives an overview of the global solar PV market, discussing the various technologies, size of the market and geographic distribution. The important solar PV markets like the US, Europe and Asia have been analyzed.
Solar photovoltaic is emerging as a major power source due to its numerous environmental and economic benefits. Installations of PV cells and modules around the world have been growing since 1998 and recorded a tremendous growth in 2008. There has been a continuous development of PV in established markets (like Germany, the US and Japan), an exceptionally good growth in Spain and the emergence of new markets, such as France, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Belgium.
Due to the growing demand for renewable energy sources, the production of solar cells and photovoltaic arrays has advanced dramatically in recent years. Apart from the conventional wafer based silicon technologies, there has been an emergence of new technologies like CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) and CPV (concentrated photovoltaic) which are more cost effective and deliver high efficiency rates. Factors like growing environmental concerns, encouragement of support schemes in form of feed-in–tariffs, increased usage of small scale applications and declining polysilicon prices will drive the solar PV market in future.
Although there are a number of companies engaged in the manufacturing of PV cells, Q-cells enjoys a clear leadership in the global PV market. The other major manufacturers include First Solar, Suntech Power, Sharp, JA Solar, Kyocera, Yingli Green Energy, Motech, Sun Power and Sanyo.