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Photovoltaic Market

» Worldwide buzz!
» Where the money lies
» The Future
» Conclusion

Worldwide buzz!

Anyone still thinking that solar energy is mainly for heating water or cooking purposes is in for a huge shock.

Advances in materials and production modalities are enabling new products including those that integrate PV with building materials and others that provide novel sources of power for cell phones and note book computers

Hence it came as a mild surprise to industry watchers and PV experts when NanoMarkets, an industry analyst firm, reported that the market for thin film and organic Photovoltaics (PV) will be worth over $7.2 billion by the year 2015.

Some of the findings of the report include:

• Printing Thin Film PV has the potential for lowering capital costs by as much as 75 percent, reducing waste and increasing throughput.
• Thin Film PV can be manufactured using simple printing or other R2R machines.
• Thin Film PV was only five percent of the entire PV market recently, but it is expected to account for 35 percent of the Photovoltaics market by 2015.
• PV could eventually account for as much as 20 percent of the U.S. market's energy needs.

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Where the money lies

Integrated building and construction products such as PV enabled roofing and window materials are projected to be the largest market opportunity measuring $800 million ($US) in 2011.

Closely behind integrated building and construction products are large project and consumer electronic products -- reported to be the second and third largest market opportunities.

On the materials front, amorphous silicon, the best established of the various thin-film PV materials, will represent an $800 million ($US) opportunity followed by organic and hybrid organic/inorganic materials and then CIS/CIGS. Thin film/organic PV is also generating buzz in the industry and several companies have received large VC rounds.

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The Future

Much of the credit must go to international competition, along with years of manufacturing experience and government research and development funding that have produced gains in photovoltaic module energy efficiency and cost reductions.

If past trends are any indications, the world market scenario has been based on the same average PV market growth rate of 15%/year as experienced during the last decade since the PV market is expected to continue growth at the same (or even higher) pace also for the next decade.

Other market technologies, such as PC personal computers and the mobile (cellular) telephony have proven that much higher market growth rates (25% to even 50% per year) are possible under favorable circumstances.

It only makes sense that governments across the world, including India, have promised marked changes in policies pertaining to the PV market, which means that also subsidies and public financial support will continue to increase with coming years.

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Conclusion

With PV market on a roll like never before several multi-national companies are bracing themselves to get a share of this rapidly expanding solar pie. India is proving to be a pioneer in the realms of incentives for setting up a base and sustaining operations as well as being a huge market in itself.

India is among those few countries in Asian region that have a govt. department exclusively dedicated to renewable energy's promotion & support. There has been a continuous decline in the costs of photovoltaic. For companies considering offshore location for designing and developing PV systems India may be the best answer!

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