A Report on the Printed Photovoltaic Markets, Including an Analysis of the Various Applications of PV Technology and an Eight Year Forecast.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/c212a4/printed_photovolta) has announced the addition of the "Printed Photovoltaic Markets" report to their offering.

The value proposition of thin-film and organic photovoltaics is all about low-cost materials. One of the ways of achieving this is through utilizing printing. This report analyzes and forecasts the opportunities that are emerging for printed PV of all kinds; silicon, CIS/CIGS, CdTe, organic, and hybrid organic/inorganic (dye cell.) In addition to coverage of printing the main photoactive material, this report also examines printing of other materials used in PV, such as transparent conductors. It also takes a look at the various applications for printed PV including building integrated systems, consumer electronics and military/homeland security. Also included is a discussion of how the markets and technologies have changed over the past year and an eight-year revenue forecast for printed PV.

Background Information:

Photovoltaic cells convert incident light directly into electrical power using the "photovoltaic effect." The first PV cell was built in 1883 and was just one percent efficient, with the first PV cell that resembled a modern PV cell being patented in 1946. The beginning of commercial PV began in 1954 when Bell Labs researchers discovered that doped silicon could produce a PV cell with six percent efficiency. The first application that was considered practical for PV was providing power for satellites.

As with other technologies that seemed key to winning the "space race," the apparent Russian superiority in this field led the U.S. federal government to provide significant amounts of funding for solar cells. Gradually, the applications for PV grew from satellites to electricity generation for buildings and then recently to solar-powered calculators. The recent spike in energy prices has given a new impetus to photovoltaics and innovations in this field are attracting considerable attention from venture capitalists at the present time.

Until very recently virtually the whole of the PV industry was accounted for by one material/technology platform: crystalline silicon (x-Si). There are now a variety of thin-film PV technologies that can have significant cost advantages as well as certain performance advantages such as low weight and the ability to be created on flexible substrates. None of these materials can compete with crystalline silicon when it comes to conversion efficiencies, however. Printing comes into the picture as one of several ways that thin-film PV can be manufactured. As a fabrication approach in thin-film PV it has found its greatest interest in CIGS PV, where Nanosolar has just begun to create solar panels using an approach based on CIGS inks and in organic PV, where the printing can leverage the broader trends of flexibility and cost advantage that point towards organic electronics. Finally, at least one company -- Innovalight -- is developing a product with many of the attractive cost and flexibility features of organic PV (OPV), but using a nanosilicon ink.

Apart from CIGS and OPV, the other kinds of thin-film PV that are commercialized or headed in that direction are amorphous silicon (a-Si) and Cadmium Telluride (CdTe,) both of which could potentially addressed with printing. It is perhaps worth noting that a very wide variety of materials have been proposed for PV and have been tried out in the labs, but many have been rejected as commercially impractical. Exhibit 3 summarizes the pros and cons of the various thin-film materials platforms that are currently used for PV.

In addition, there is more to PV systems than just the solar cell, although this is our focus. Efficiencies of solar cells can be increased using a concentrator. According to one source, this can reduce the necessary cell surface area by three orders of magnitude. However, concentrated systems can only use sunlight that hits the cells at a 90-degree angle and needs to be used in areas that are more or less free of clouds. This last requirement is obviously very limiting. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 226,916 peak kilowatts of PV cells were shipped by U.S. firms in 2005. Of this, 125 peak kilowatts were concentrator systems. Other subsystems are required for PV systems. These include an inverter, protection circuits, a subsystem to tie the system to the grid where this is appropriate, and batteries to store the energy. Our focus is entirely on printed solar cells themselves and the materials that are used to make them.

Key Topics Covered:

- Printed electronics market overview

- Printed photovoltaics

- Current and future applications for printed photovoltaics

- Eight-year forecasts of printed photovoltaics markets

- List of exhibits

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/c212a4/printed_photovolta.