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Suntech said on February 3 that planned cuts to Germany's solar power incentives will probably prompt solar companies to ship excess panels to the United States, pressuring equipment there, reports Reuters.  

Germany is currently ranked as the top market for PV solar systems, with approximately 50% of the global market share, but planned 15% cuts to FiTs from April 1 could change this ranking.

"Anything that happens in Germany has a ripple effect," Roger Efird, Suntech's managing director for business development in the U.S.

Suntech predicts that the modules that would have ordinarily been sold to the German market will now go to the U.S, causing an increase in its market, possibly placing it in the top spot by 2013.

Efird also thinks that the U.S. solar market could show strong growth throughout 2010, potentially doubling from an estimated 500MW that were installed in 2009.

"There is an opportunity that we could hit 1GW in the U.S. this year," he said, but that would likely require about 300MW of large, utility-scale projects.