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This is a list of notable photovoltaics (PV) companies. Grid-connected solar
photovoltaics Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...
(PV) is the fastest growing energy technology in the world, growing from a cumulative installed capacity of 7.7 GW in 2007, to 320 GW in 2016. In 2016, 93% of the global PV cell manufacturing capacity utilizes
crystalline silicon Crystalline silicon or (c-Si) Is the crystalline forms of silicon, either polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si, consisting of small crystals), or monocrystalline silicon (mono-Si, a continuous crystal). Crystalline silicon is the dominant semiconduc ...
(cSi) technology, representing a commanding lead over rival forms of PV technology, such as
cadmium telluride Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is a stable crystalline compound formed from cadmium and tellurium. It is mainly used as the semiconducting material in cadmium telluride photovoltaics and an infrared optical window. It is usually sandwiched with ca ...
(CdTe),
amorphous silicon Amorphous silicon (a-Si) is the non-crystalline form of silicon used for solar cells and thin-film transistors in LCDs. Used as semiconductor material for a-Si solar cells, or thin-film silicon solar cells, it is deposited in thin films ont ...
(aSi), and
copper indium gallium selenide Copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) is a I-III- VI2 semiconductor material composed of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium. The material is a solid solution of copper indium selenide (often abbreviated "CIS") and copper gallium selenide. ...
(CIGS). In 2016, manufacturers in China and Taiwan met the majority of global PV module demand, accounting for 68% of all modules, followed by the rest of Asia at 14%. The United States and Canada manufactured 6%, and Europe manufactured a mere 4%. In 2021 China produced about 80% of the polysilicon, 95% of
wafers A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light and dry biscuit, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. Wafers can also be made into cookies with cream flavoring sandwiched between them. They ...
, 80% of cells and 70% of modules. Module production capacity reached 460 GW with crystalline silicon technology assembly accounting for 98%. Photovoltaics companies include PV capital equipment producers, cell manufacturers, panel manufacturers and installers. The list does not include
silicon Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic ta ...
manufacturing companies.


Photovoltaic manufacturers


Top 10 by year


Summary

According to EnergyTrend, the 2011 global top ten polysilicon, solar cell and solar module manufacturers by capacity were found in countries including People's Republic of China, United States, Taiwan, Germany, Japan, and Korea. In 2011, the global top ten polysilicon makers by capacity were GCL, Hemlock, OCI, Wacker, LDK, REC, MEMC/ SunEdison, Tokuyama, LCY and Woongjin, represented by People's Republic of China, United States, Taiwan, Germany, Japan and South Korea.


Historical rankings

In 2015, GCL System Integration Technology Company made an increase of 500%, topping 2.5-2.7 GW, which puts it at seventh rank, overtaking Yingli Green, compared to 0.5 GW in 2014. Their solar PV module production appears to have reached a 3.7 GW capacity at the end of 2015. Solar modules, as the final products to be installed to generate electricity, are regarded as the major components to be selected by customers willing to choose solar PV energy. Solar module manufacturers must be sure that their products can be sustainable for application periods of more than 25 years. As a result, major solar module producers have their products tested by publicly recognized testing organizations and guarantee their durable efficiency rate for a certain number of years. The solar PV market has been growing for the past few years. According to solar PV research compan
PVinsights
worldwide shipments of solar modules in 2011 was around 25 GW, and the shipment year-over-year growth was around 40%. The top five solar module producers in 2011 were: Suntech, First Solar, Yingli, Trina, and Canadian. The top five solar module companies possessed 51.3% market share of solar modules, according to PVinsights' market intelligence report. Top 10 solar cell producers According to an annual market survey by the photovoltaics trade publication ''Photon International'', global production of photovoltaic cells and modules in 2009 was 12.3 GW. The top ten manufacturers accounted for 45% of this total.Hirshman, W. P., "Surprise, surprise (cell production 2009: survey),
Photon International
(March 2010), pp. 176-199.
In 2010, a tremendous growth of solar PV cell shipments doubled the solar PV cell market size. According to the solar PV market research company PVinsights, Suntech topped the ranking of solar cell production. Most of the top ten solar PV producers doubled their shipment in 2010 and five of them were over one gigawatt shipments. The top ten solar cell producers dominated the market with an even higher market share, say 50~60%, with respect to an assumed twenty gigawatt cell shipments in 2010. Quarterly ranking Although yearly ranking is as listed above, quarterly ranking can indicate which company can sustain particular conditions such as price adjustment, government feed-in tariff change, and weather conditions. In 2Q11, First Solar regained the top spot in solar module shipments from Suntech. From the 2Q11 results, four phenomena should be noticed: thin film leader First Solar still dominates; more centralization in the solar module market; Chinese companies soared; and the giga-watt game is prevailing (according to the latest solar model shipment report by PVinsigts). Thin film ranking
Thin film solar cell A thin-film solar cell is a second generation solar cell that is made by depositing one or more thin layers, or thin film (TF) of photovoltaic material on a substrate, such as glass, plastic or metal. Thin-film solar cells are commercially use ...
s are commercially used in several technologies, including
cadmium telluride Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is a stable crystalline compound formed from cadmium and tellurium. It is mainly used as the semiconducting material in cadmium telluride photovoltaics and an infrared optical window. It is usually sandwiched with ca ...
(CdTe), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), and amorphous and other thin-film silicon (a-Si, TF-Si). In 2013, thin-film declined to 9% of worldwide PV production. In 2009, thin films represented 16.8% of total global production, up from 12.5% in 2008. The top ten thin-film producers were: * 1100.0 MW
First Solar First Solar, Inc. is an American manufacturer of solar panels, and a provider of utility-scale PV power plants and supporting services that include finance, construction, maintenance and end-of-life panel recycling. First Solar uses rigid thi ...
* 123.4 MW Suntech solar * 94.0 MW Sharp * 60.0 MW HELIOSPHERA * 50.0 MW Sungen Solar * 50.0 MW Trony * 50.0 MW Moser Baer * 43.0 MW
Solar Frontier Solar Frontier Kabushiki Kaisha is a Japanese photovoltaic company that develops and manufactures thin film solar cells using CIGS technology. It is a fully owned subsidiary of Showa Shell Sekiyu and located in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The company ...
* 42.0 MW Mitsubishi * 40.0 MW Kaneka Corporation * 40.0 MW Vtech Solar * 30.0 MW Würth Solar * 30.0 MW Bosch (formerly Ersol) * 30.0 MW EPV 1 Estimated


2011 global top 10 polysilicon manufacturers by capacity

On the other hand, the 2011 global top ten solar cell makers by capacity are dominated by both Chinese and Taiwanese companies, including Suntech, JA Solar, Trina, Yingli, Motech, Gintech, Canadian Solar, NeoSolarPower, Hanwha Solar One and JinkoSolar.


2011 global top 10 solar cell manufacturers by capacity

In terms of solar module by capacity, the 2011 global top ten are Suntech, LDK, Canadian Solar, Trina, Yingli, Hanwha Solar One, Solar World, Jinko Solar, Sunneeg and Sunpower, represented by makers in People's Republic of China and Germany.


2021 global top 10 solar module manufacturers by capacity

In terms of wafer and cell capacities, both makers from Taiwan and China have demonstrated significant year over year growth from 2010 to 2011.


China and Taiwan production capacity


Solar photovoltaic production by country

China now manufactures more than half of the world's solar photovoltaics. Its production has been rapidly escalating. In 2001 it had less than 1% of the world market. In contrast, in 2001 Japan and the United States combined had over 70% of world production. By 2011 they produced around 15%.


Other companies

Other notable companies includ
Land of in giants: PV majors making waves
''Renewable Energy World'', 15 March * Anwell Solar, Hong Kong, China *
Ascent Solar Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. is a publicly traded photovoltaic (PV) company located in Thornton, Colorado. Its primary product is a flexible CIGS solar cell on a plastic substrate. Technology Ascent Solar's thin-film solar modules are manu ...
, Tucson, Arizona, US * Cool Earth Solar, California, US * Dyesol, Canberra, Australia * Eurosolar, Germany * Global Solar, Tucson, Arizona, US * GreenSun Energy, Jerusalem, Israel *
Hanwha , former_name = Korea Explosives Group , type = Public , traded_as = , industry = Conglomorate , founded = , founder = Kim Chong-hee , hq_location_city = Seoul , hq_location_country = South Korea , area_served = Global , key_people = K ...
, Seoul, South Korea * HelioVolt, Austin, Texas, US * Hitachi, Japan * IBC SOLAR, Germany * International Solar Electric Technology, Chatsworth, California, US * Isofotón, Malaga, Spain * Konarka Technologies, Inc., Lowell, Massachusetts, US * LDK Solar, Xinyu, China * Meyer Burger, Thun, Switzerland *
Miasolé MiaSolé is an American solar energy company selling copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic products. MiaSolé's manufacturing process lays CIGS on a flexible stainless steel substrate. MiaSolé produces all layers of photo ...
, California, US * Mitsubishi Electric, Tokyo, Japan * Nanosolar, San Jose, California, US * Odersun, Frankfurt Oder, Germany *
Panasonic Corporation formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka. It was founded by Kōnosuke Matsushita in 1918 as a lightbulb s ...
Osaka, Japan * PowerFilm, Inc., Ames, Iowa, US * Renewable Energy Corporation, Norway * Schott Solar, Germany *
Signet Solar Signet Solar is a defunct solar company that was established in 2006 in Menlo Park, California. They produced photovoltaic modules, and have manufacturing plants in India and Germany. The modules are made using thin film silicon technology on large ...
, California, US *
Skyline Solar Skyline Solar was a Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) company based in Mountain View, California. The company developed medium-concentration photovoltaic systems to produce electricity for commercial, industrial and utility scale solar markets. Th ...
, Mountain View, California, US *
SolarEdge SolarEdge is an Israeli company that develops and sells solar inverters for photovoltaic arrays, energy generation monitoring software, battery energy storage products, as well as other related products and services to residential, commercial a ...
, Grass Valley, California, US * SolarPark Korea, Wanju, South Korea * SolarWorld, Bonn, Germany * Solimpeks, Munich, Germany * SoloPower, San Jose, California, US * Spectrolab, Inc., Sylmar, California, US * Sulfurcell, company has changed name to Soltecture in 2011, Germany * SunEdison * Suniva, Norcross, Georgia, US * Sun Power Corporation, San Jose, California, US * Targray Technology International, Kirkland, Quebec, Canada * Tenksolar, Minneapolis, Minnesota, US *
Topray Solar Topray Solar () is a vertically integrated solar energy company with global presences in Africa, Europe, Asia and North America. It is a Public company, publicly listed company on China Shenzhen Stock Exchange (Stock Ticker: 002218) with a market c ...
, China *
Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...
, Tokyo, Japan * Unirac, Albuquerque, New Mexico, US * Wagner & Co., Germany * Wirsol, Waghäusel, Germany * Xinyi Solar, Wuhu, China


List of solar panel factories

Below is a list of solar panel factories. It lists actual factories only, former plants are below this first table.


Closed solar panel factories


See also

* List of CIGS companies * List of concentrating solar thermal power companies * List of energy storage projects * List of silicon producers * Renewable energy industry ** Silicon Module Super League *
Solar cell A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon.
** Dye-sensitized solar cell *
Solar inverter A solar inverter or photovoltaic (PV) inverter is a type of power inverter which converts the variable direct current (DC) output of a photovoltaic solar panel into a utility frequency alternating current (AC) that can be fed into a commercial ...
*
Power optimizer A power optimizer is a DC to DC converter technology developed to maximize the energy harvest from solar photovoltaic or wind turbine systems. They do this by individually tuning the performance of the panel or wind turbine through maximum power po ...
*
Applied Materials Applied Materials, Inc. is an American corporation that supplies equipment, services and software for the manufacture of semiconductor (integrated circuit) chips for electronics, flat panel displays for computers, smartphones, televisions, and ...
, a solar cell
capital equipment A fixed asset, also known as long-lived assets or property, plant and equipment (PP&E), is a term used in accounting for assets and property that may not easily be converted into cash. Fixed assets are different from current assets, such as cash ...
producer


Notes


References


External links


"Explosive Growth Reshuffles Top 10 Solar Ranking"

"BLDC Ceiling Fan, Ceiling Fan, Manufacturers, Price, Suppliers, India"
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Photovoltaics Companies Electrical-engineering-related lists Photovoltaics companies Photovoltaics companies