NanoMarkets has released a new market report on the thin-film battery industry titled ‘Thin-Film Batteries: A New Market Opportunity Assessment – 2011’. The report is part of the company’s coverage on new energy storage solutions.
The report estimates that the thin-film battery market will achieve roughly $900 million in revenues in 2016, while the total sales of the products featuring thin-film batteries will be $14 billion for the same year. It examines the opportunities and application markets for the thin-film batteries such as semiconductor industry, patches, medical implants, sensors, electronic shelf labels, smartcards, smart packaging and RFID.
The report discusses the latest advancements in battery production technologies and chemistry and the market strategies of major players supplying thin-film batteries. According to NanoMarkets, the sensor industry will be the largest user of thin-film batteries and will consume about $400 million worth of thin-film batteries by 2016. Sensors used in smart grids, wireless sensor and military sensor networks will be the major applications market for thin-film battery in the coming years.
NanoMarkets predicts that the thin-film batteries will find opportunity in the smartcard market as biometric ID cards are required to have better operating life than the normal credit card, paving the way to thin-film batteries as power sources. The smartcard segment is expected to consume nearly $280 million worth of thin-film batteries by 2011.
By producing value-enhanced products for new niche markets, thin-film battery producers are attracting potential investors. Hence, IPS and Cymbet find new openings from the combination of batteries and energy harvesting products, while Planar Energy Devices finds itself challenging against traditional lithium ion batteries in numerous applications.