CPV Market To Hit 4.7 GW By 2020 (GlobalData Report)

In order to let you know about more in-depth research on various cleantech markets, we’ve decided to partner with a leading market research firm, GlobalData. Basically, the deal is pretty simple: you get a discount on market research reports (10% off*); CleanTechnica gets a cut of the sales (yay!); and GlobalData sells more of its top-notch market research reports. I don’t see a downside.

One hitch (as you probably know) is that market research reports aren’t cheap. They’re not for the lay reader. According to our reader surveys, about 1/3 of our readers work in a cleantech industry. So, we’re hoping the discount will really be useful to some of you. For the rest of us, hopefully the summaries are interesting enough. Below is a summary of the first one we’re featuring.

Concentrated Solar Photovoltaic (CPV) technology is not something we spend a lot of time writing about. As a new GlobalData report on this technology notes, only 53.3 megawatts of CPV power are currently installed worldwide. However, at the same time, this is one of the technologies I’m genuinely most excited about. CPV is very high-efficiency solar. It has been held back by even higher (relative to other solar technologies) costs. However, I’m quite confident that CPV costs will be cut enough that it will take up a huge section of the overall solar market. GlobalData seems to agree. In fact, it says that the market is on the verge of rapid growth.

From an executive summary of its Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV), 2012* report: “The CPV market is expected to grow dramatically over the next three years. Companies that have successfully operated CPV prototype systems in pilot locations are progressing towards multi-MW CPV projects. With an increased understanding of CPV in terms of technology and investment, most of the players have plans for large-scale CPV projects. Companies such as SolFocus, Amonix and ArimaEco are planning to expand their production capacities in order to meet the upcoming demand. Countries such as Italy, China, Australia, India and South Korea are proving to be important emerging markets in the CPV industry. Italy’s CPV Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) program and China’s low-cost production and high Direct Normal Irradiation (DNI) in its western region are attracting CPV investors in these countries.”

As you can see in the chart above, Spain and the US dominate the (nascent) CPV market right now (well, in 2011, but it’s basically the same still). There’s a 7.8 MW and a 2 MW CPV power plant in the country, both constructed and owned by Guascor Foton. These are the largest CPV power plants currently online (anywhere in the world).

As the chart shows, though, the US (30.7% of the market, or 16.37 MW of CPV capacity) is right behind China (34.8%, or 18.55 MW of CPV capacity). In the US, SolFocus (company site here), Amonix (company site here), and Emcore (company site here) are key companies vying to take hold of the market as it expands.

Across Europe, the main emerging players are Concentrix (company site here), Abengoa Solar (company site here), and ArimaEco (company site here), according to GlobalData.

With conventional solar PV maturing so quickly, I have to admit that it’s sort of fun to watch a very young market popping out of the ground like a seedling again. Of course, we need it to grow fast, and GlobalData predicts it will. As the title indicates, this company’s research projects 4,700 MW (4.7 GW) of CPV power capacity will be online by 2020. What are your thoughts?

*The discount code to use when ordering Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV), 2012 is: GDPC9400. The 10% discount offer expires on April 30, 2013.

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