Solar cell push benefiting thin film equipment suppliers, firm says

By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor -- Electronic News, 3/30/2007

With the shortage of polysilicon driving the solar cell industry to thin film technology, there will be a ramp in commercial production equipment, according to The Information Network, a New Tripoli, Pa.-based market research company.

The total market for commercial solar cell production equipment is expected to grow from revenues of $1.2 billion in 2006 to $4.5 billion in 2010, according to the firm, which includes commercially-available equipment for coating, etching, diffusion, and cleaning in its analysis. The crystalline silicon (c-Si) sector includes equipment for SiN, back reflectors, and contacts. The thin film sector includes equipment for transparent conductive oxide (TCO), deposition, contacts, and automation tools.

Dr. Robert Castellano, president of The Information Network, said in a statement, “Unfortunately, the market for these types of equipment is for the sectors of the industry that are projected to grow the slowest, namely c-Si and amorphous silicon (a-Si). The real growth in the solar cell market will be in equipment for newer thin film technologies, such as cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium (gallium) diselenide (CIGS). Key innovations are roll-to-roll equipment and printable CIGS inks instead of sputtering and chemical vapor deposition.”

The firm projects that the compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of c-Si and a-SI will be approximately 40 percent between 2006 and 2010, whereas CdTe is projected to exhibit a CAGR of nearly 75 percent, and CIGS will show a CAGR of an astounding 200 percent. Other technologies, such as GaAs films will also grow at triple the rate of silicon-based cells, The Information Network believes.