Global Thin Film Solar PV Market Analysis, Growth, Trends & Forecast 2018-2023

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The market for thin film solar PV is expected to register a significant growth on account of low-cost manufacturing of Cadmium Telluride-based thin solar film PV, along with high efficiency on glass or flexible substrates.

With the annual production estimated to reach 500GW by 2020, from 40 GW in 2013, this market is expected to be the fastest growing market. It is a billion dollar market, with China leading the market for photovoltaic cells. Germany is one of the leading countries for installation of photovoltaics; it has an installed capacity of 37 GW.

With fossil fuel prices fluctuating continuously and disasters, like Fukushima and Chernobyl raising serious questions about nuclear power, renewable sources of energy are the answer to the world's growing need for power. Environmental concerns are associated with hydro power; apart from water, the sun is the other abundant source for renewable energy. The earth receives 174 petawatt of solar energy every year. It is the largest energy source on earth.

The main concern regarding solar power is the initial cost of photovoltaic cells. This cost incurred is a one-time investment, and solar panels have a very negligible maintenance cost. There are other concerns, like solar power is an intermittent energy source. This problem can be addressed by installing battery storage system along with solar plants.

In the recent years, lot of research has been conducted in this field to make production easier and also to make the solar panels smaller and more customer friendly. Significant effort is being put to increase the efficiency of solar panels, which used to have a very meagre efficiency percentage.