Global CIGS thin-film solar-cell capacity to reach 1,175MW by 2010: Displaybank.

Taipei, Oct. 21, 2009 (CENS)--Although Crystalline-Si solar cells comprised 90% of the past PV market with its high penetration and confirmed functional aspects, its raw material poly-silicon production, however, went through shortage as it could not catch up with the high growth rate of photovoltaics (PV) market, according to Displaybank, a market research firm.

In order to create solutions, the research firm said, thin-film solar cell makers have been expanding their capacity and improving mass-production technology. Now, thin-film solar cells' market share is about 13% and such product recorded over 120% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in past three years.

Through vigorous efforts made by participants in the sector, CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) solar-cell production capacity, however, had reached 103MW (million watt) in 2007 and 313MW in 2008 (actual production volume was 23.5MW and 84.9MW in the two years), DisplayBanks said.

Currently, there are some major CIGS solar-cell leaders such as Wurth Solar (Germany), Honda Motor (Japan) and Showa Shell Sekiyu (Japan), who currently are accounting for over 75% of the global CIGS solar-cell supply, while the remaining players are only producing small quantities as they are not able to secure volume-production technology.

Among all CIGS thin film solar cell makers, Germany-based Wurth Solar is known as the leader in terms of both technology and production scale. However, DisplayBank said, there is still a big room for production-technology improvement as the annual increase in global CIGS capacity is only 10MW to 15MW in recent years.

Japan-based Showa Shell Sekiyu has additionally expanded its production capacity by 20MW in 2008 to reach 80MW in 2009. Solibro, a subsidiary of Q-Cells, plans to expand its production capacity to 135MW by 2010 by increasing module utilization to 10.5%. US-based Solyndra is also expected to begin construction of 500MW mass production plant in the second half of 2009 and increase production capacity to 110MW this year.

Through these module & equipment makers' efforts, CIGS solar cell production capacity is expected to reach 667MW in 2009 and 1,175MW by 2010, DisplayBank said.