Photovoltaic (PV) technology has come a long way since its initial rollout in the mid-20th century, and it has, particularly over the past decade, generated a healthy market. But the resource — enabled by regulatory and incentive-driven demand, increased polysilicon supply, and falling price points within the next two to four years — now stands on the precipice of truly explosive growth. Even amid the current slowdown in the global capital markets, future PV price reductions coupled with rising retail electricity prices and stringent environmental compliance requirements point to a new era of solar power.

Technology Coverage and Data Segmentation

This tracker provides total market size and vendor share for the following technology areas and segmentations. Measurement for this tracker is in unit shipments, MW capacity, and value.

Technologies and Subtechnologies:

• Photovoltaic modules
• Material/process type: Crystalline silicon (c-Si), thin film (CdTe, CIS, CIGS, a-Si)
• Module type: DC, AC, or Smart Module

Segmentations:

• Applications: Residential, commercial, utility scale

Geographic Scope

• North America (United States, Canada)
• EMEA
• Rest of World
• Additional country-level segmentation possible

Forecast Coverage

Forecasts for this tracker are updated quarterly and include one year of historical data and five years of annual market projections. Examples of the segmentations being forecast in this tracker include:

• Geographic
• Material/process type

Delivery Schedule and Deliverables

This tracker is delivered on a quarterly basis via the IDC tracker Web site. The delivery schedule for this tracker is as follows:

• Historical data: Week 10 after period closes
• Forecast data: Week 12 after period closes

Return on Research Investment

• Insight into vendor market shares and average prices in support of procurement activities.

• Insight into technology adoption rates, competitive position and pricing in support of market intelligence activities.

Standard Subscription Deliverables

IDC Energy Insights values building client relationships and strives to foster a partnership with each client through continuous analyst interaction; concise delivery of current, timely, and relevant research; as well as custom research when needed. Each advisory service delivers strategic research covering business and technology issues. A summary of the basic service deliverables available to subscribers includes the following:

• Analyst inquiry time specific to the advisory service area
• 24 x 7 research access via www.idc-ei.com
• Discounted admission to specific IDC Energy Insights or IDC conferences
• Complimentary forum invitations (Web conferences, industry briefings)

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Related Offerings

Related offerings to our industry-specific research practices include IT Spending Guides — segmented regional and country-level analysis by solution area; Go-to-Market Services (GMS) — a modular set of deliverables to assist clients in extending their market reach, validating their market strategy, and producing more responsive customer-centric marketing campaigns; Global IT Advisor (GITA) — a flexible, cross-disciplinary research service providing granularity in market information and analysis across a wide range of technology areas; and IDC Advisory Tools — a growing set of solutions designed to ensure clients that technology purchasing and deployment decisions are optimized. In addition, IDC Energy Insights experts are available for individualized consulting engagements to address specific challenges or to customize the results of our syndicated research offerings.