Solar business from Korea

Market research firm, iSuppli Corp has revised its growth forecast for the PV industry for 2009, due to the strong level of installations in Germany since mid-year as the rapidly declining module prices proved too alluring. As PV-Tech noted in a recent blog, the German market is hot right now and many research firms, including iSuppli could find themselves with forecasts well below actual installation levels, unless they made upward revisions. The market research firm now expects PV installations to reach 2.5GW in Germany, inline with GTM Research and EPIA, but lower than Photon Consulting’s projection of 3.9GW. Its previous forecast from Senior Director of Photovoltaics Research, Dr Henning Wicht was 1.53GW of installations in Germany. “Solar-panel installations in Germany began surging to record levels in July as prices for PV systems plunged,” said Wicht. “This phenomenon has boosted the global solar panel business and mitigated the severe oversupply situation that has stung the ind...

iSuppli's latest projection states that thin-film technology will significantly take over from the established crystalline technology, more than doubling in market share by 2013. The value chain research and advisory services company claims that by this time, thin-film will account for 31% of the market, up from 14% in 2008. "The market viability of thin-film has been solidly established by First Solar as it rockets to become the world's top solar panel maker this year, with more than a gigawatt of production," said Greg Sheppard, chief research officer for iSuppli. "At the same time, the company has driven its cost of production to less than 90 cents per watt, keeping its costs at approximately half the level of crystalline module producers." For years now, the battle for market share has been driven by efficiency, as although crystalline cells are more expensive, they are far more efficient than thin-film. This meant that for the same amount of efficiency,...