Chinese companies dominate solar manufacturing spending in 2010

EL SEGUNDO, USA: Chinese companies are expected to lead the world in the expansion of solar cell and module manufacturing capacity in 2010, accounting for seven of the 10 biggest gainers in the industry, according to iSuppli Corp.

Collectively, the seven Chinese companies are set to expand their Photovoltaic (PV) cell and module manufacturing by 6.4 Gigawatts (GW) in 2010, representing 71.8 percent of the total 8.98GW increase among the Top 10.

“While European countries like Germany are leading the world in solar installations, China has built a dominant position in the manufacturing of cells and modules that are used in these systems,” said Greg Sheppard, chief research officer for iSuppli.

“With Chinese cell and module manufacturers now engaged in a race to expand manufacturing, the country is certain to maintain and expand its dominant position.”

The biggest expansion will be undertaken by China’s LDK Solar Co. Ltd., which will add a total of 1.42GW worth of module and cell manufacturing in 2010. The company will bring on 1.3GW of c-Si module capacity and 120 Megawatts (MW) of c-Si cell manufacturing capacity.

“LDK is adding enormous amounts of capacity as it tries to keep pace with fellow Chinese solar suppliers,” Sheppard observed.

No. 2 among the capacity adders will be Renewable Energy Corp. of Norway, with 1.09GW of new manufacturing.

“REC is reinvigorating its cell and module business with a giant new campus in Singapore, causing its production capacity to rise,” Sheppard added.

The table presents iSuppli’s ranking of the world’s Top 10 largest companies ordered by PV cell and module manufacturing capacity expansions in 2010.Source: iSuppli, USA.

In terms of c-Si cells, JA Solar of China is poised to lead in manufacturing expansion, with 700MW of the 1GW in total additions allocated for that technology. If the spending for ingots, wafers, polysilicon is added, iSuppli estimates that the PV industry will spend approximately $11 billion on production equipment this year.

The spending is being driven by the doubling of sales for solar panels as well as pent-up demand induced by the slowing of capital expenditures in 2009.

For their part, thin-film companies have been relatively small spenders this year, as many in their ranks had plenty of manufacturing capacity to absorb.

First Solar allowed efficiency improvements—rather than spending on new equipment—to drive capacity growth this year. Spending on thin-film capital equipment is slated to accelerate in 2011, assuming that companies follow through on announced plans.

Source: iSuppli, USA.