The Truth About US Solar Power Market

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Although a number of companies, including Solyndra and Evergreen Solar went out of business entirely in the US, installations of solar panels have skyrocketed 69 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, thanks largely to commercial and government projects, according to an industry trade group report released Tuesday. U.S. manufacturing is an entirely different story, where success is mixed and highly dependent on where the products are headed.

For the concentrating solar power market and concentrating photovoltaics, there are currently 600 MW under construction in the US, with an additional 7 GW at various stages of development.

The only segment of the solar power market which did not grow in the Q2 2011 was the residential PV market, which declined for the second consecutive quarter. During Q2, 60 MW were installed, a decline of 5.7% over the previous year. However, the Solar Market Insight expects the residential market to pick up, as residential solar-leasing programs expand.

Meanwhile, companies that make solar products in the U.S. and sell directly to the domestic market have fared much better. The U.S. solar market is the fastest growing market in the world, Rhone Resch, executive director of the Solar Energy Industries Association said in a teleconference Tuesday to discuss the industry report.

Foreign and domestic companies keen on tapping the U.S. market are increasingly building factories here. Resch made particular note of Chinese solar panel maker Suntech Power, which opened last year a 117,000-square-foot plant in Goodyear, Arizona. In May, the company added a third production shift.

This growth in solar power market in the US has an impact here in the Philippines as more US base solar cell companies put up manufacturing plants in different parts of the countries either as direct manufacturers or in sub-contractors.

source: smartplanet

What Every Solar Company Should Know

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This past days as you may have notice, all of my posts were all related to solar energy. It's because it is developing at a faster rate compared to other renewable energy sources.


Solar energy for me is the most convenient and the easiest way to install and operate compared to say wind energy and hydro-energy . Because of this, several companies manufacturing solar panels and solar cells emerged in the past few years. Others (electronics and semiconductor manufacturing companies) as of the moment were also catching up and starting to build there own solar cell and solar cell related products.


This scenario has resulted to very tight and fierce competition on who could deliver the most efficient and cheaper products.


Then came the Chinese manufacturer which could manufacture the same product at a lower price compared to any competitor out there. This is the reason why one of the great American companies, Evergreen Solar Inc., once a darling of the U.S. solar industry, according to Wall Street Journal,  filed for bankruptcy protection this week, saying it couldn't compete with Chinese competitors without a reorganization—a sign of the difficulty in creating "green" U.S. manufacturing jobs amid bruising competition across the globe.


The market for solar panels is expanding world-wide. But the key thing driving demand is increasingly lower prices, which is forcing U.S. firms into a cutthroat cost-cutting war with rivals in China and elsewhere.


In all of this competition, it couldn't be denied that China is on the rise in terms of economy and to be specific - its manufacturing power which could deliver solar products at a lower price that holds the reasons why many companies resorted to stiff cost cutting measures just to survive. However, solar companies should not forget that it is the consumers that would ultimately define and dictate their future survival.