DisplaySearch, a US market research company, released a forecast saying that the global production capacity of solar cell units in 2009 will increase by 56% over the previous year, reaching 17GW. From January 2008 to July 2009, capacity increased by 11.4GW. The company predicts that the global production capacity of solar cell units will grow at an average annual rate of 49% until 2013, expanding to 42GW by 2013. In addition, the company predicts that global demand for solar cell modules in 2009 will decrease by 17% compared with the previous year. Demand is expected to continue to grow from 2010 onwards.
By region, Japan achieved the world's largest output in 2006, but in terms of equipment investment in 2009, China is expected to account for 1/3 of the world's total. DisplaySearch predicts that China will develop into the world's largest producer of solar cell units in the future.
According to different materials, the growth rate of thin film silicon solar cell units is very significant. In 2005, thin-film silicon solar cell units accounted for 5% of global production capacity, and crystalline silicon solar cell units accounted for the remaining 95%. However, it is expected that the proportion of thin-film silicon solar cell units will expand to more than 20% in 2013. will reach 30% annually.
Looking at different manufacturers, America's First Solar ranked first in terms of solar cell unit production capacity in 2009. DisplaySearch estimates that First Solar has a production capacity of more than 1GW, far ahead of Germany's Q-Cells SE and Suntech Power Holdings. The company also predicts that in addition to the above three companies, the top ten manufacturers in terms of production capacity share in 2013 also include China's JA Solar Holdings, Taiwan's Motech Industries, and Norway's REC Solar, SunPower, China's Yingli Green Energy Holding, Showa Shell Oil and Sharp.
