Manufacturing Snapshot: c-Si PV

CEMAC provides deep analysis to help policymakers and industry gain deeper understanding of the state of and opportunity space in manufacturing of crystal silicon PV and other clean energy technologies. These high-level insights are drawn from Benchmarks of Global Clean Energy Manufacturing.

The manufacturing supply chain for c-Si PV modules

• Global cumulative solar PV system installed capacity reached 177 GW in 2014, and global annual demand was 43 GW. Global demand growth is expected to be 12% annually between 2015 and 2020.
• Globally, solar PV attracted 150 Billion USD investment in 2014, an increase of 25% from 2013.
• Opportunities for innovation in PV manufacturing include cost effective production of advanced cell architectures, polysilicon purity, and other areas contributing to higher cell and module efficiencies.
• Solar PV manufacturing contributed total value added of 27.2 billion USD across examined economies.
• In the United States, polysilicon production is the largest contributor to value added in PV manufacturing, supporting 0.8 billion USD, which is more than 60% of PV value added.