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February 22, 2008
Solar Energy and Polysilicon Shortages to End in 2008
By Calvin Azuri, TMCnet Contributing Editor
The solar energy industry continues to witness rapid growth as climate changes receive more and more attention internationally, according to a report (http://www.energy.frost.com) released by Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert). The research firm reveals that the Global Solar Photovoltaic Market had accrued revenues of $6.49 billion in 2005 and is expected to grow to more than $16 billion in 2012. This rapid growth has led to a phenomenal increase in the demand for polysilicon.
Despite the growth, the solar photovoltaic industry has been facing issues such as shortage and allocation of polysilicon, which is the critical component of the majority of solar panels. However, this year, a radical change in the scenario is expected. According to Frost & Sullivan, polysilicon supply will be able to meet the demand, thus ensuring better opportunities for the solar energy industry.
"We expect polysilicon supply to catch up with the demand already in 2008," Alina Bakhareva, Renewable Energy Programme Manager at Frost & Sullivan, was quoted as saying in the report. "The majority of the new quantities will be supplied to the market by top 4 producers that are expanding their existing production capacities."
Apparently, the demand for silicon feedstock had reached 26,000 tonnes in 2004. In 2005, wafer production had increased by around 7 per cent. Despite this, the market need wasn’t met. In 2006, the feedstock shortage had begun to dramatically affect solar panel production, hampering the growth of the industry.
In 2008, it is expected that four top polysilicon producers will be producing more than 17000 tonnes of capacity, which translates to more than 50% increase over the current capacities.
"Since these companies are well-established in the industry and have accumulated many years of experience," Alina Bakhareva had added. "They have quite short ramp-up time for the new plants and we can expect them to start the production on time and stick to their announced schedules."
From a demand perspective, the semiconductor industry will grow at a steady single-digit rate. The demand for solar-grade polysilicon has been predicted to grow to more than 50% of the total demand for high purity silicon in 2008-2009.
For more information on the renewable energy markets and on the Green Energy Subscription, then visit www.frost.com.
All research offered in subscriptions feature in-depth market opportunities. Industry trends have been evaluated through extensive interviews with market participants.
Calvin Azuri is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page .
 Internet Protocol (IP) | X | | IP stands for Internet Protocol, a data-networking protocol developed throughout the 1980s. It is the established standard protocol for transmitting and receiving data
in packets over the Internet. I...more |
(source: http://www.tmcnet.com/green/articles/21387-solar-energy-polysilicon-shortages-end-2008.htm)
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