Companiesandmarkets.com has released a new report on the worldwide thin film photovoltaic (TFPV) manufacturing equipment market in July 2011. The market has reached $3.2 billion at a growth rate of 70.3% per annum in 2010.
It is expected that the thin film PV market will reach $4.3 billion by 2015 and $15.7 billion by 2020. Major factors that will drive the market are technology enhancements and decrease in manufacturing costs.
The report covers historic and forecast analysis from 2006 to 2020 and market influencing factors like mergers and acquisitions, innovations, manufacturing techniques and price trends. The TFPV research report also includes profiles of various equipment manufacturers, including Pall Corporation, Oerlikon Solar, Mirle Automation, Manz Automation, Leybold Optics, Grenzebach, GreenSolar, Edwards Vacuum, Coherent, Centrotherm Photovoltaics, BTU International and Apollo Solar Energy Technology.
The report reveals that 7.5 GW of production capacity has been added to the PV manufacturing industry for TFPV manufacturing equipment in the past five years. Production process of TFPV is different from traditional crystalline silicon PV technologies. The TFPV production process includes deposition of thin vapors on semiconductor layer, which decreases the use of raw materials. The TFPV manufacturing equipment market is expected to be dominated by Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, China and other southeast Asian regions.