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Strategy Analytics recently completed a study, which estimates that in 2008 the terrestrial PV market will be worth $20.2 billion and will only continue to grow reaching $35.2 billion by 2012 suggesting a compound annual average growth rate of 23%. They attribute the market’s growth to escalating worldwide demands for renewable energy.

"Crystalline silicon-based solar technology still has a dominating market share of around 89% in 2008. However, moving forward, its share will be eroded as a result of competing technologies based on thin film and compound semiconductors," reports Asif Anwar, Director of the GaAs service at Strategy Analytics, "Thin film solar cells cost less and do not consume large amounts of crystalline silicon. Traditional crystalline silicon solar cell manufacturers, such as Q-Cells and Sharp, are involving in this new area." Anwar concluded, "III-V based concentrated photovoltaic technology offers advantages of high cell conversion and lower material usage. Strategy Analytics believes that these advantages will translate to CAAGR of 133% through 2012, accounting for 10% of the total market share."

Strategy Analytics planned to present their most recent analysis on the terrestrial PV market at the Green Power for Korea 2009 Conference on 9th December 2008.