Dec 11 2008
NanoMarkets, a leading industry analyst firm based here, today announced it has released an updated analysis of the thin-film photovoltaics (TFPV) and organic photovoltaics (OPV) materials markets. Although projected growth for the thin-film PV is likely to suffer as the result of the economic downturn, it still represents an attractive market for materials firms. The firm's new analysis and forecast projects revenues of $2.4 billion in 2011 that will grow to just under $7.5 billion in 2015. Additional details about the report are available at http://www.nanomarkets.net/.
Key Insights:
NanoMarkets believes that the current financial crisis will set back improvements for some of the more advanced materials being developed for PV. Efforts in the CIGS space -- such as the development of better formulations of selenium -- will delayed. So will improvements in OPV materials that could lead OPV beyond its current low conversion efficiencies. In addition, market conditions will set back research into materials for so-called third-generation PV such as cadmium selenide, cadmium sulfide, and cadmium telluride nanocrystals. Such delays will slow the progress that TFPV has been making at the expense of traditional crystalline silicon photovoltaics.
NanoMarkets also projects that amorphous silicon (a-Si) materials will continue to dominate the TFPV/OPV sector over the next few years and will account for well over half of the revenues from materials sold into that sector. Sales of silane gas and other materials for a-Si are expected to account for $1.1 billion in revenues in 2011. However, although the news for developers of new TFPV materials is not good in the short term, NanoMarkets still expects these materials to experience significant new demand in a couple of years, which is when NanoMarkets believes that conditions will lead to quantum leaps in the price of traditional energy sources. Therefore NanoMarkets believes that firms who can afford to keep their advanced PV materials programs will garner a long-term advantage.
About the Report:
NanoMarkets' report, Materials for Thin Film and Organic Photovoltaics (Revised Edition) provides a complete analysis of the commercial opportunities in thin film and organic PV materials markets. The report includes detailed eight-year forecasts of thin-film and organic materials broken out by material functionality and chemistry, as well as reviews of the research and the corporate strategies of firms active in the sector. The main photovoltaic technologies covered include amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, CIGS, dye cells and pure organic approaches.
Detailed volume and value forecasts are provided for each material covered. In addition, the report includes possible high-end and low-end scenarios for the various TFPV and OPV materials markets. These scenarios enable materials firms selling into the TFPV/OPV sector to plan successfully for the highly uncertain future that they now face. We have also included revised discussions of influential suppliers of TFPV products taking into account announcements and developments since the original version of this report. This new analysis shows their latest thinking on TFPV materials development and R&D.