Dye sensitised cell market poised to expand

Even as the overall PV industry is reeling from rapidly declining panel prices, cutbacks in government support and falling firms, dye sensitised cell photovoltaics (DSC) is a technology with solid growth prospects.

This is the conclusion of a report by NanoMarkets who estimates that the total market value of DSC modules at the application level will grow from about US$40 million in 2012 to over US$500 million by 2015.

Then, after building-integrated PV (BIPV) applications for DSC PV take off, the firm anticipates that the market value will exceed US$4.4 billion by 2019. At the same time, the market for DSC materials is expected to grow from a value of just under US$12 million in 2012 to over US$1.2 billion by 2019.

In the past two years, the DSC market has come of age and has moved out of its R&D phase. The performance of DSCs is now comparable with amorphous silicon PV, but with much more potential than a-Si for performance improvements.

DSCs also offer an ability to be deployed on flexible substrates and perform under non-peak insolation.

The report provides an in-depth market analysis of recent developments in DSCs, examining the meaning of the latest products, strategies and technical developments. It identifies how performance improvements are likely to help grow addressable markets for DSC and where these new markets are to be found.

It also examines the potential for DSC in the BIPV sector and how DSC is likely to perform in a world in which solar energy is not the hot topic that it was a few years ago.

The report also contains a discussion of some of the key players in the DSC marketplace, including 3GSolar, G24 Innovations, NLAB Solar, Dyesol, Oxford Photovoltaics, Solaronix, Solarprint, BASF, Merck, Umicore, Pilkington/NSG, Tata Steel, Everlight Chemical, Timo Technology, EPFL, Fujikura and Peccell.