Solar/PV: Top 20 global companies

Global Solar Photovoltaic Industry

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Solar/PV: Top 20 global companies

The top 20 cell-companies have been ranked by production in 2007 and by announced production capacity 2010

Pradeep Chakraborty

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

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MUNICH, GERMANY & BANGALORE, INDIA: Brace yourself folks! Presenting the Top 20 solar photovoltaic companies during Q1-2008. I am very grateful to Jon Cassell at iSuppli, USA, for helping me out in this exercise. (Since this table is quite large, it has been placed at the end of this article!)

I was extremely fortunate enough to discuss this table with Dr. Henning Wicht, Senior Director, Principal Analyst, iSuppli Deutschland GmbH, in Munich, Germany.

Parameters for rankings
First up, what were the parameters used by iSuppli to determine the top 20 global solar companies? According to Dr. Wicht, the top 20 cell-companies have been ranked by production in 2007 and by announced production capacity 2010. He clarified, "Ranking by revenue is not applicable because many integrated manufactures publish compound revenues for cells, modules and systems."

Yes, there have been several announcements in the solar/PV space, in India, and globally, and some names could be missing here. However, the new cell manufacturing projects will be included as soon as they are announced.

Coming back to the topic, it is necessary to examine the role of subsidies. While photovoltaics have been getting cheaper, Dr. Wicht said that subsidies were still necessary to support the PV markets. "It shows that the time grid parity shortens faster than expected earlier. As an example, for Germany, the grid parity might be achieved in 2015, which is two years earlier than expected in 2007."

That is to say, the support programs are beneficial, both to support markets to become independent sustainable and to develop the regional industry.

Global interest in solar/PV
Critically, there seems to have developed a sudden interest in solar/PV, starting late 2007, when this (solar) has been around for some time. How has this happened?

According to Dr. Wicht, rising CO₂ levels generated through fossil energy, CO2 certificates, rising prices of fossil fuels, political dependency from oil exporting countries drove the Kyoto protocol to reduce CO₂.

"Renewable energy is a major pillar to achieve that goal. European governments have been front-runners to implement and execute that goal. That said, solar has been around for a while. Japan was the first significant market. However, on a global basis, it took off in Europe from 2005 onward," he noted.

With the spate of initiatives in solar/PV, can it not turn out to be a case of too many folks entering the same line?

Sure, over and undersupply happens along the supply chain! The iSuppli market researcher figures out imbalances, which drive prices/margins up and down.

Also, isn't there a chance of solar/PV getting commoditized, or has it already become one? Well, PV modules are a commodity product, said the analyst. The market is still in its infancy and it will continue to grow for the next 10 years and further. The overall saturation will come, but still some years to go.

Is solar helping semicon?
Some industry folks have been saying that the solar/PV initiatives are not really helping the overall semicon industry, a statement I rather tend to agree with! Also, such initiatives may only be benefitting some of the equipment makers. Anyhow!

Dr. Wicht said: "Indeed, semicon fabs are not able to produce competitively solar cells and the solar need for semiconductor devices is rather low. The semiconductor companies, however diversify into PV, e.g., Qimonda with a new cell production. Intel is investing in several PV companies, LG is investing in Conergy, etc., or supplying devices for power conversion, e.g, National Semiconductor. However, the overall impact on the semicon devices market is rather low!

Solar, semicon investments on par?
Interestingly, iSuppli had made a forecast some time back regarding investments in solar and semiconductors being on par by 2010.

The investments for solar cell production raising up to several hundreds of Mio USD, up to 1 Bio $ per production site. That is coming close to a semiconductor fab. The total capex of semiconductor is still 10 times larger than PV. However, PV is rising much faster.
Ok folks, here's the table. Your comments are welcome, as always!

Top 20 solar photovoltaic companies; Source: iSuppli, USA

Source: iSuppli, USA

©CIOL Bureau

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Read Comments

jikariya said on 6/8/2009 4:48:00 PM:
hi i am one of candidate looking for job in thinfilm technology i have excellent exp in singapore in applied material centura

to jikariya

Ed said on 1/20/2009 3:06:09 PM:
this is for the top 20! Refer to other articles for global growth.

to Ed

SANDEEP CHHIPA said on 1/14/2009 12:53:28 PM:
THIS TABLE IS SHOWING EXPECTED PRODUCTION.BUT I WANT TO KNOW GLOBAL GROWTH RATE OF SOLAR ENERGY OR INDIA ALSO.

to SANDEEP CHHIPA

Pradeep said on 12/30/2008 12:33:02 AM:
Indian manufacturers have only proposed investments and I am told some are in the process of setting up facilities. Moser Baers plant is up at Noida, UP. We will only know the "real" capability of the Indian players once all their projects are up and running.

to Pradeep

vishal said on 12/24/2008 11:24:08 AM:
hi there,I am doing a market research to identify the potential of Indian solar cells manufacturers to export to Europe,but with only one Indian manufacturer in the table I am confused whether the Indian market is capable to export to europe, because the figures which I have say something different India exported solar cells worth $123 Mn in 2006-2007,so please advice on the capability of the Indian Manufacturers

to vishal

alfie said on 11/3/2008 8:20:58 PM:
Then who are the top equipment vendor of the solar companies?

to alfie

Editor said on 10/30/2008 5:35:22 PM:
Hello Dr. Sandip Chattopadhyay, pl. send us your email address.

to Editor

Sandip Chattopadhyay said on 10/29/2008 5:33:09 PM:
I am writing to you on behalf of Chandradeep Solar Projects Private Limited, based in Calcutta (Kalkutta), India (Indien) and going to undertake a project ( To set up Solar PV manufacturing unit at the Fab City,Hyderabad, India) and looking for technological collaboration from any German Partner. I would like to share the objective of setting this in brief. The objective of the company is " Technology for Sustainability" and we are working for "Energy Independence" that means freedom from fossil fuel and to lead India towards Sustainable Clean and Green Energy. The low efficiency of Solar Photovoltaic Cells has restricted the use of Solar energy for large power generation application. Research has shown that the Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) based PV cell with multi junction device could give maximum efficiency of less than 30%. Hence it is essential to accelerate the research tasks on Carbon Nano Tube (CNT) based PV cell which has the potential for higher level of energy efficiency. Chandradeep Solar wants to take up this challenge and would like to come up with the development of a CNT based PV cell with an efficiency of at least 50% within the next three years so that it can go into the commercial production within five years. Can you help us to prepare a Detail Project Report (DPR) on this which will be submitted before several funding agencies for fund. If any clarification is needed from my side then please dont hesitate to mail or phone me. Cheers Dr. Sandip Chattopadhyay Director, Sales Chandradeep Solar Projects Private Limited 09748664680

to Sandip Chattopadhyay

Collapse <div runat='server' id=div13299 class='CommentsContainer'><span class='commentsFrom' style='float:left;'>Ed said on 10/27/2008 3:34:05 AM: </span><br/>Global recession hasnt really affected the solar players.<div class='CommentLineContainer'><input type=button onClick='showModal(13299,ctl00_ContentPage_ThreadedComments1_txtPid);' value='Reply'/> to Ed </div>

Ed said on 10/27/2008 3:34:05 AM:
Global recession hasnt really affected the solar players.

to Ed

sunil said on 6/27/2009 10:35:12 PM:
Hellow, I am interested to set up solar cell plant in Jabalpur,Indore/Pune,India.I am looking for Technological collaboration with foreign partner preferably France/ German.My preliminary objective will be to export the product.

to sunil

Nanda said on 10/26/2008 4:19:33 PM:
How is the global recession affecting solar players?

to Nanda

Saracuse said on 10/24/2008 5:06:16 AM:
Will you revise this table next year?

to Saracuse

Geroge said on 10/22/2008 10:15:41 AM:
Given the economic climate, no surprise people are getting into solar.

to Geroge

changi said on 10/19/2008 4:35:39 AM:
Mostly equipment vendors will benefit. Good for this interest in energy and energy security

to changi

Kelly said on 10/17/2008 2:30:25 AM:
This table will change next year... Googles, Intels, Nat Semis of the world are getting into this space, and a host of new companies from India

to Kelly

Solar Truth said on 10/17/2008 12:27:27 AM:
Tunnelvision focus on sp.module cost makes thin film look better than 50 % more efficient crystalline silicon. But installation cost scales inversely with efficiency and is higher per watt for thin film, thus greatly even-ing out the cost comparison for installed modules. A case in point : difference in module efficiency between FSLR ( eff 10 % ) and even poly crystalline silicon ( 15 % ) is 50 % !! No prize for answering correctly why the installation of First Solar ( of AZ ) first US facility ( in So. Cal ) will be done by FSLR themselves.

to Solar Truth

Ed said on 10/16/2008 3:31:50 PM:
Yes, production in 2007, as detailed in the article.

to Ed

Mark Davidson said on 10/16/2008 3:09:38 AM:
What does capacity mean in the table? Total insalled capacity to that date? Capacity production capability per year? Something else?

to Mark Davidson

Ed said on 10/15/2008 5:52:46 PM:
New investments are happening. Big players are also entering this space... lots will change and lots will happen

to Ed

Anonymous said on 10/15/2008 1:32:08 AM:
Good work. I would love to see your module projections, and the projections for actual power plants and end-user MW predictions.

to Anonymous

Ashok said on 10/15/2008 1:31:11 AM:
Well, it looks like US is way behind!

to Ashok

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