Two of the most important, near-term markets for high-efficiency flexible lightweight photovoltaics are spacecraft and aerostats/high-altitude airships (HAA). The target customers for this market are aerospace companies, defense, and communications industries. The largest market is in the evolving HAA industry, but there is also an opportunity in the well-established satellite community. Market projections indicate that approximately 16.5 MW of flexible thin film PV power will to be launched for HAA's, and 1.0 MW of space PV power will be launched between 2007 and 2011. In the long term, as the costs eventually come down with manufacturing process improvements and economies of scale, the PV space/HAA product technology can be leveraged for the implementation of the low-cost monolithic tandem PV terrestrial product. The terrestrial PV market is projected to be a $163 ? 302 M (min and max estimates) per year market by 2010 for thin-film technologies in North America alone, with a compound annual growth rate between 16.1% and 32.3%.
More »