Solar market looks bright
Chipmakers may see benefit of solar market boom
By Dave Hannon -- Purchasing, 6/3/2009 3:25:00 PM
Riding a wave of federal stimulus funding, some analysts are forecasting that the solar market will grow by leaps and bounds in the coming years, benefiting not only solar technology developers, but their suppliers as well.
Electronics industry researcher IC Insights also said recently it “expects demand for solar installations to come charging back in 2010 as new government incentives in the U.S., Europe, and China gain traction.” The researcher forecasts solar installations of solar equipment to rise 37% in 2010.
Research firm Gartner Inc. also forecasts continued growth for the sector, estimating that 114 million solar panels will ship in 2013, up from 32 million in 2009.
An executive from Suntech Power Holdings recently told the Reuters Global Energy Summit that he wouldn’t be surprised if the U.S. solar market tripled by next year. “The prospects for 2010 and beyond are quite significant," Steven Chan said.
Also speaking at the Reuters summit, Tom Werner, CEO of Sun Power, said the federal stimulus package has improved sentiment in the market, but the funds won’t actually hit his company's bottom line until "the back half of the year, perhaps Q4." He sees a much larger impact in 2010.
And semiconductor makers that focus on power management may see a big boost if that solar growth comes to fruition. According to a Dow Jones Newswires report this week, in the past, electronics companies felt they needed to develop the actual solar panel technology to get into the solar market. But today chipmakers such as National Semiconductor Corp. and Microsemi Corp. are focused on developing chips that, when added to new or previously installed solar panels, improve the panels' efficiency at producing electrical power from the sun.
National Semiconductor recently initiated field trials of its SolarMagic power optimizers in a project with partner SunEdison. According to National Semi, the SolarMagic chips optimize the power harvested by each photovoltaic array in a solar panel.
As reported earlier this week on Purchasing.com, Enphase Energy, which makes solar microinverter systems, has hired Flextronics to be its manufacturing partner.
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