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Semiconductors in the Solar Industry: Global Market Analysis 2013(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Dublin - Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/sn57b7/semiconductors_in) has announced the addition of the "Semiconductors in the Solar Industry: Global Market Analysis" report to their offering. Semiconductors are an essential part of the solar photovoltaic industry. Many of the components of PV systems require semiconductors. The demand for semiconductors in the solar photovoltaic industry has demonstrated an aggregated global growth rate of more than 40% per annum over the last 10 years. It is anticipated to rise steadily in the coming five years ahead as well. Few industries can boast equivalent numbers, but solar PV has two big challenges ahead. Production costs need to go down in order for it to become more economically sustainable, while production capacity must continue to grow in order for PV to become a significant player in the global energy market. In order to make the PV industry viable in the long run, the price of electricity per energy unit generated by a photovoltaic system needs to be comparable to the electricity market price during peak time. In order to achieve this, significant efficiency improvements are needed in the production process. Over the past four decades the semiconductor industry has developed enormous know-how about silicon in its different forms, as well as its interaction with other materials, such as aluminum and copper. This knowledge is very useful in analyzing the behavior of silicon-based solar cells and in optimizing their efficiencies. Since 2005, demand for silicon has increased significantly in the PV industry, even overtaking the capacity needs of the semiconductor industry. This has resulted in unprecedented high prices for silicon on the spot-market as well as PV production facilities working at less than full capacity. Of all the challenges the industry is currently facing, the biggest is of technical standards. Because several of the larger PV cell manufacturers are vertically integrated they have developed proprietary in-house standards. However, as new players enter the market they will look to third party equipment suppliers in order to build a complete production line. This approach can only succeed if industry standards are agreed upon for the interfaces that are used by these systems. This can be in the form of simple agreements such as the height and other dimensions of the input and output for a continuous flow system or more sophisticated interfaces, such as machine-to-machine interfaces and their related software protocols for the advanced process control of the full production line. This report analyzes the consumption, demand and usage of semiconductors in the solar photovoltaics industry in its research offering Semiconductors in the Solar Industry. Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. Introduction to Solar PV Power Systems 3. Introduction to the Global Semiconductors Industry 4. Introduction to Semiconductors in the Solar PV Industry 5. Analysis of Key Markets 6. Analysis of Products Using Semiconductors in the Solar PV Industry 7. Factors Impacting the Market 8. Competition in the Industry 9. Major Industry Players 10. Glossary of Terms 11. Research Methodology Companies Mentioned - Centrotherm Photovoltaics AG - Fairchild Semiconductor International - First Solar - Gintech Energy Corporation - Infineon Technologies AG - International Rectifier Corporation - JA Solar Holdings - Meyer Burger Technology AG - OC Oerlikon Corporation AG - Roth & Rau AG - STMicroelectronics - Suntech Power Holdings - Trina Solar For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/sn57b7/semiconductors_in CONTACT: Research and Markets, Laura Wood, Senior Manager. [email protected] Fax from USA: 646-607-1907 Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716 Sector: Semiconductor (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/categories.asp cat_id=102&campaign_id=sn57b7), Solar Power (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/categories.asp cat_id=291&campaign_id=sn57b7) ((M2 Communications disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.com on the world wide web. Inquiries to [email protected])). (c) 2013 M2 COMMUNICATIONS |