PV demand exceeded many analysts' expectations last year but could also cause slower-than-expected growth over the next few years, should figures released from market research firm Solarbuzz prove accurate. Solarbuzz said that global PV market installations reached a new record of 18.2GW in 2010, a massive 139% increase over 2009. The PV industry generated US$82 billion in global revenues in 2010, up 105% year-on-year, from US$40 billion in 2009.
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.
SunPower has said that after talks with its various Japanese-based suppliers, none have sustained major damage to their facilities, though “certain operations are currently disrupted due to infrastructure issues,” the company stated.
The initial reports from a key number of PV manufacturers and suppliers highlighted that little damage to manufacturing operations occurred as a result of the massive earthquake last Friday. However, concern is now focused on the shortage of electricity that affects approximately 45 million people in Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) service area covering Tokyo, Tochigi, Gunma, Ibaraki, Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama and Yamanashi prefectures.
Production of polysilcon continues to expand as major suppliers attempt to keep pace with market demand. Wacker Chemie has updated plans to expand its polysilicon production that includes spending €130 million on debottlenecking measures to add 10,000MT more capacity. Wacker noted that it is essentially sold out under supply contracts through 2014.
Cyberstar, based in Grenoble, France has introduced their new 650/800kg Crystallization Furnace System for multicrystalline silicon ingot production. Cyberstar has been designing and manufacturing reliable and cost effective crystal growth equipments like Czochralski, Bridgman, floating zone, liquid phase epitaxy and, mirror furnaces (infrared or laser heating) since 1986.
Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan was said by experts to be the largest to hit the country in over a century. A massive10-metre (33-foot) high tsunami battered coastal towns and cities across the northeast coast with Sendai, north of Tokyo affected the most by the disaster. As for the events' impact on the solar PV supply chain, initial reports indicate the effects have been minimal.
PV module encapsulants supplier, STR Holdings posted 2010 sales to the solar sector of US$259.2 million, an increase of 73.4%, compared to sales of US$149.5 million in 2009. Management noted that the increase in sales was due to increased market share gains with its current Tier 1 Chinese customers as well starting to supply a large Asian module manufacturer in the year.
China-based polysilicon producer, Daqo New Energy, has reported its first financial year results as a public company, listed on the NYSE. Polysilicon shipments for 2010 were 3,650MT, module shipments were 3.5MW, after starting volume production in the fourth quarter. Revenues in the fourth quarter of 2010 were $81.9 million, an increase of 29.6% from the third quarter of 2010. The increase was mainly due to higher average selling prices for the polysilicon.
Enecsys has launched the ‘Enecsys Duo micro-inverter,’ claiming it is the world's highest power density micro-inverter with dimensions of 262 x 160 x 35mm. Designated the SMI-D360W-72, it is designed to reduce system costs whilst supporting fully independent power point tracking of two connected photovoltaic modules.
