DuPont Banking on Solar to Boost its Bottom Line

Chemical maker DuPont (NYSE:DD) said this week it expects to triple its photovoltaic sales to $1 billion annually by 2012.

The increase will come as the market for solar power increases and the company boosts its own ability to produce solar cells, company officials said during the Jefferies 7th Global Clean Technology Conference.

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“Photovoltaic technology is in its infancy and the opportunities in this market are extensive,” David B. Miller, group vice president for  DuPont’s  Electronic and Communication Technologies division told conference attendees.

The company cited industry estimates that project the overall solar market to grow from $30 billion to $70 billion in 2013. DuPont has expanded production of several films and pastes used in solar manufacturing to help meet this demand, officials said. The company expects thin film solar demand to far outpace the demand for crystalline silicon cells.

The growth would be welcome news for DuPont, which as Forbes.com points out, has had a rough go of it lately. Weakening demand for chemicals led to double-digit drops is sales for most business units in the fourth quarter of 2008 and Chief Executive Ellen Kullman said 2009 would be “challenging.”

But the $1 billion target may be reachable for DuPont, given all the rosy estimates of solar industry growth that are floating around. DuPont says it remains confident of future demand, even with oil prices at less than half of what they were a year ago. And all this growth would fit right in with a plan the company laid out in 2006 to produce as much as $6 billion in new renvenue from a sustainable growth strategy.

Photo credit: Thomas23’s Flickr stream, via a Creative Commons License.

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