According to a 2011 year-end article published by Technology Review, an MIT publication (www.technologyreview.com), the solar industry is facing a large oversupply of solar panels, fueled largely by manufacturers in China, which is home to four of the top five largest solar-panel manufacturers in the world. The article states that the average nominal (not adjusted for inflation) price of crystalline silicon solar panels fell from $1.90/watt to $1.35/watt from January to November 2011, according to GTM Research.
In addition, the world's solar capacity continues to grow quickly. GTM Research estimates that 20,563 megawatts of solar power were installed globally in 2011--13,553 megawatts in Europe, 2,083 in North America, 3,938 in Asia, 710 in Australia, and 279 megawatts in the rest of the world. That is 2,960 megawatts more than were installed in 2010, and brings the total global solar capacity to 59,152 megawatts.
According to energybible.com, there a number of major photovoltaic solar panel manufacturers in the U.S. and a rapidly growing number in Europe and China. Here is their list:
Advent Solar
Amonix Inc
Atlantis Energy System Inc.
B P Solar Int'l LLC
Canrom Photovoltaics, Inc.
DayStar Technologies Inc.
Energy Photovoltaics Inc,
Evergreen Solar Inc.
First Solar LLC.
GE Energy (USA) LLC
Global Solar Energy Inc.
Innergy Power Corporation,
Iowa Thin Film Technologies
Kyocera Solar Inc.
Matrix Solar Technologies
Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics USA, Inc.
Mitsui Comtek Corp.
Pacific SolarTech
RWE Schott Solar Inc.
SANYO Energy (USA) Corporation
Sanyo Semiconductor Corporation
Sharp Manufacturing Company of America
Shell Solar Industries LP
Solar Power Industries, Inc.
Spire Corporation
Sunpower Corporation
Sunwatt Corporation
Sunwize Technologies LLC
Terra Solar Global, Inc.
Tideland Signal Corporation
United Solar Ovonic LLC
Renee Robbins Bassett, rbassett@automationworld.com, Managing Editor, Automation World
