Market research firm, Solarbuzz has reported its Top 10 rankings by cell capacity in 2010. Actually, there were 12 companies in the ranking due to several companies tying on capacity. Suntech Power and JA Solar tied for the first position, followed closely by First Solar.
On a geographical basis, there were four producers in the rankings that are headquartered in China, (Suntech (1), JA Solar (1), Trina Solar (9) and Canadian Solar (12)). Taiwan was also well represented with three firms in the rankings, (Motech (5), Gintech (6) and Neo Solar Power (11)).
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Not surprising was the inclusion of two key producers headquartered in the U.S., First Solar and SunPower, ranked third and tenth, respectively.
Both Kyocera and Sharp were tied for seventh position and were the only two firms from Japan in the rankings.
Only one German manufacturer was included in the Solarbuzz rankings, Q-Cells at number 4. However, like SunPower the majority of cell production is in Asia.
According to Solarbuzz, worldwide solar cell production reached 20.5GW in 2010, up a massive amount from 2009 when production reached 9.86GW.
Thin film production accounted for 13.5% of total production, Solarbuzz said.
Producers in China and Taiwan continued to build market share, and accounted for 59% of global cell production in 2010, up from 49% in 2009.