NanoMarkets to debut research program focused on metals used in solar PV

NanoMarkets has begun a new research effort focusing on the opportunities for suppliers of metals and related materials used in solar photovoltaics. Metals covered in the program will include silver, indium, tin, cadmium, aluminum, molybdenum and zinc.

The first of seven PV metals reports will be published in May, with the remaining six documents delivered over the course of the second and third quarters. Each report will review the current state of the PV industry, then discuss and identify the role of the particular metal of interest in the electronics industry as a whole, and its part in each of the PV segments. Opportunities for these metals in the PV space will also be quantified in an eight-year forecast.

The industry analyst group sees the creation of new opportunities for metals to be integrated into the electrodes and reflective layers of PV devices. In some cases, these new market niches extend to value-added opportunities, such as the creation of novel kinds of metallic inks. There are also new applications for metals that have never normally been associated with PV—such as indium in CIGS or cadmium in CdTe, which are used in the absorber layers of newer thin-film PV products.

Since there has been little in the way of market analysis for businesses and investors primarily concerned with the opportunities for metals used in PV products, NanoMarkets hopes to provide analyses targeted not only to those already in the PV business, but also to those in the specialty metals business that may be interested in learning about the growth and opportunities available for these metals in the PV industry.