Global thin film solar PV market dominated by Asia

LONDON, UK: In 2006 the global thin film solar PV manufacturing equipment market was worth $384 million, but grew at a rate of 70.3 percent p/a to 2010, to reach $3.2 billion, according to a new report available on companiesandmarkets.com. A reduction in manufacturing costs and improvements to technology are expected to drive the global thin film solar PV manufacturing equipment market to $4.3 billion (2015), and $15.7 billion (2020).

Thin film solar PV manufacturing equipment worldwide
Over the last five years, 7.5GW (20 percent) of the global production capacity added to the PV manufacturing industry was for thin film photovoltaic manufacturing equipment. TFPV production differs from that of traditional c-SI (crystalline silicon) PV technologies, as it uses different deposition processes and production equipment. To manufacture TFPV, thin vapors are deposited on to semiconductor layers, minimising raw material requirements.

China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and other southeast Asian economies are expected to dominate the future TFPV manufacturing market, although strong competition is expected from Germany, Italy, Spain, the Americas and Eastern Europe.

Equipment manufacturers profiled within the thin film photovoltaic research report include: Apollo Solar Energy Technology, BTU International, Centrotherm Photovoltaics, Coherent, Edwards Vacuum, Gebr. Schmid, GreenSolar, Grenzebach, Leybold Optics, Manz Automation, Mirle Automation, Oerlikon Solar, Pall Corporation, Roth & Rau, Singulus, Smit Ovens, Tokyo Electron, ULVAC, Veeco Instruments and Von Ardenne Anlagentechnik.