Solar Equipment Revenues Likely to See Moderate Increase
VLSI Research Inc. predicted overall solar equipment growth of 8% this year. Suppliers of equipment for silicon wafer-based solar cell manufacturing are expected to see declining revenues this year, but thin-film equipment vendors will more than offset that with strong growth.
Staff -- PV Society, 2/19/2009
Market research firm VLSI Research Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) predicted slowing but still-respectable growth for solar equipment manufacturers this year.
For 2008, the photovoltaic (PV) cell and module manufacturing equipment market for both thin-film and silicon wafer PV equipment reached $4.4B, according to a study managed by John West, managing director of VLSI Research Europe. Growth is expected to slow to 8% in 2009 “as demand for cells starts to cool and smaller manufacturers struggle to secure the financing necessary to fund the next round of expansion,” West said.
Providers of equipment for thin-film cell manufacturing will experience strong revenue growth in 2009, VLSI Research predicted, due to large order backlogs and long customer-acceptance times. However, suppliers of equipment for silicon wafer-based cell manufacturing are expected to see a decline, resulting in overall growth of 8% for this year.
“The underlying fundamentals of this market are strong and this is a temporary situation exacerbated by the global economic crisis,” West said, adding that 2009 will be a period of consolidation as weaker companies are squeezed out over the coming year.
Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara) led all solar equipment vendors last year with $455M in revenue, the company reported earlier this month.
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| Companies making equipment for solar cell and module manufacturing had revenues of $4.4B in 2008, led by Applied Materials. |
