With various national feed-in tariffs in place in a number of European countries, Europe retains its place as the region installing the majority of solar panels in the world. Although there is a considerable quantity of imported panels from Asia, European domestic cell and panel manufacturers are also making their efforts to meet the ever growing market demand. With strong growth rates from the market leaders, a variety of large new companies entering the market, and a continued fragmentation of the market producing more and more manufacturers, information about all the European players is becoming essential for many companies involved in the solar business.

ENF has gathered information from the source through telephone contacts with all the manufacturers of cells and panels in the European market, to bring you the latest numbers on the market. As well as direct information collection from the manufacturers, ENF also collaborated with other PV experts to discover additional players in the market, and also compared data with other published sources to ensure accuracy. Together with results from ENF's previous report, ENF was able to adjust the data given by some manufacturers to ensure misinformation was filtered out from the report.

"I have been using and purchasing information on the photovoltaics industry for nearly 25 years. I have well established sources and am skeptical of newcomers trying to sell reports - often without sufficient detail or rigor. I'm happy to say that ENF's new report meets my standards for quality of information and provides an excellent new source of information on the PV industry."

"Thanks very much for your reports, I believe your reports are of great use to people in the PV industry. We used to collect and analyse this information by ourselves which consumed too much time. These reports by ENF definitely meet our requirements, and help us understand the industry better."

- Li Wei, Director of Management Department, Yingli Solar

"Your report was very useful for us. We appreciate the Chinese market survey a lot."

- Fabrizio Bonemazzi, Marketing Manager, ENEL

"Thanks again for the report, it has been very helpful for me in trying to come to a better understanding of the PV marketplace in China."

- Bill McGrail, Business Development Manager, Guardian Industries Corp

Panel manufacturers(113 companies)

Thin-film manufacturers(31 companies)

Note: This is a list of companies with individual profiles, not a complete list of all companies tracked in the survey.

Coverage

Cell manufacturers:

1. 37 cell manufacturers included in the survey (up from 19 in 2006 survey)
2. ENF collected production and capacity data from 31 companies
3. Equipment data has been collected from 13 companies

Panel manufacturers:

1. 113 panel manufacturers included in the survey (up from 66 in 2006 survey)
2. ENF collected production and capacity data from 105 companies
3. Equipment data has been collected from 55 companies

Thin-film panel manufacturers:

1. 31 thin-film panel manufacturers included in the survey (up from 7 in 2006 survey)
2. ENF collected production and capacity data from 29 companies

Detailed information collected and analyzed

Company basic info
- English name
- Phone number
- Fax number
- Email contact
- Website
- Cell or panel production
- Cell technology
- General background information

Company data
- Capacity: Data spanning the years 2002 to 2010
- Production: Data spanning the years 2002 to 2010
- Staff number: Data spanning the years 2003 to 2008
- Cell mix produced by cell manufacturers: Data spanning the years 2007 to 2010
- Cell mix used for panel production: Data spanning the years 2007 to 2010 regarding the cell sizes being used for panel production
- Cell production equipment brand and number: Details of production equipment brands used for cleaning, diffusion, etching, PECVD anti-reflection coating, screen-printing, curing, testing, sorting and other processes
- Panel production equipment brand and number: Details of production equipment brands used for laser scribing, tabbing and stringing, laminating, framing, testing and other processes
- Capacity definition details: Definition of reported capacity (nominal or realistic), factory working time used for capacity calculation, actual factory working time (data to be used for adjusting capacity data to a common comparable basis)
- Company key contacts: Contact details, languages spoken for the CEO, purchasing director and sales director of each company
- Cell specifications and 2008 & 2009 panel power ranges for each manufacturer
- Background information on each company (when they were founded, what other products they make etc.)
- Extra information on each company obtained from telephone interviews

Individual Profiles (746 Pages)

Cell manufacturers

Graphs
- Cell production (2002 to 2010) split into Self Use for panel production and Sell Out to other companies
- Cell capacity (2002 to 2010)
- Quoted capacity, Realistic capacity and Potential capacity comparison (2002 to 2010)
- Product mix (2007 to 2010)
- Staff number (2003 to 2008)

Tables
- Production equipment (cleaning equipment, diffusion furnace, etching equipment, anti-reflection coating equipment, screen printer, firing furnace, testers/sorters)
- Company key contacts (contact details, languages spoken of CEO, purchasing director and sales director)
- Cell specifications

Panel manufacturers

Graphs
- Panel production (2002 to 2010)
- Panel capacity (2002 to 2010)
- Quoted capacity, Realistic capacity and Potential capacity comparison (2002 to 2010)
- Cell mix used (2007 to 2010)
- Staff number (2003 to 2008)
- 2008 panel power range (Note: 2009 panel power range can be found in the Excel data file)

Tables
- Production equipment (laser scriber, tabber/stringer, laminator, framer, tester)
- Company key contacts (contact details, languages spoken of CEO, purchasing director and sales director)

Thin-film panel manufacturers

Graphs
- Production (2002 to 2010)
- Capacity (2002 to 2010)
- Quoted capacity, Realistic capacity and Potential capacity comparison (2002 to 2010)
- Staff number (2003 to 2008)
- 2008 power range (Note: 2009 panel power range can be found in the Excel data file)

Tables
- Company key contacts (contact details, languages spoken of CEO, purchasing director and sales director)

Analysis Report (83 Pages)

European Solar Cell Manufacturers

Graphs
- Cell Companies' Capacity Growth Rates, 2002-2010
- Reported Prod. Capacity (MWp), Total Market, 2002-2010
- Realistic Prod. Capacity (MWp), Total Market, 2002-2010
- Potential Prod. Capacity (MWp), Total Market, 2002-2010
- Cell Companies' Factory Utilisation Rates, 2002-2010
- Cell Production (MWp), 2002-2010
- Cell Production, Cell Mix (MWp), 2007-2010
- Cell Sales (MWp), 2002-2010
- Cell Sales, Cell Mix (MWp), 2007-2010
- Cell Internal Usage (MWp), 2002-2010
- Cell Internal Usage, Cell Mix (MWp), 2007-2010
- Cell Production Split Between Internal Use and External Sales, 2002-2010

Tables
- M-Share of Reported Production Capacity, 2002-2010 [Data Table]
- M-Share of Realistic Production Capacity, 2002-2010 [Data Table]
- M-Share of Potential Production Capacity, 2002-2010 [Data Table]
- Market Share of Total Cell Production, 2002-2010 [Data Table]
- Market Share of Cell Sales, 2002-2010 [Data Table]
- Market Share of Internal Cell Usage, 2002-2010 [Data Table]

European Solar Panel Manufacturers

Graphs
- Panel Companies' Capacity Growth Rates, 2002-2010
- Reported Prod. Capacity (MWp), Total Market, 2002-2010
- Realistic Prod. Capacity (MWp), Total Market, 2002-2010
- Potential Prod. Capacity (MWp), Total Market, 2002-2010
- Panel Companies' Factory Utilisation Rates, 2002-2010
- Panel Production (MWp), 2002-2010
- Panel Production, Cell Mix (MWp), 2007-2010
- Panel Power Ranges (Wp), 2008-2009

Tables
- M-Share of Reported Production Capacity, 2002-2010
- M-Share of Realistic Production Capacity, 2002-2010
- M-Share of Potential Production Capacity, 2002-2010
- Market Share of Panel Production, 2002-2010

European Thin-film Solar Panel Manufacturers

Graphs
- Thin-film Companies' Capacity Growth Rates, 2002-2010
- Market Share of Crystalline vs. Thin-film, 2002-2010
- Actual Production Capacity (MWp), Thin-film, 2002-2010
- Thin-film Companies' Factory Utilisation Rates, 2002-2010
- Thin-film Production (MWp), 2002-2010
- Thin-film Technology Production, 2002-2010

Tables
- Market Share of Thin-film Production, 2002-2010
- Market Share of Thin-film Prod. Capacity, 2002-2010 [Data Table]
- Market Share of Thin-film Production, 2002-2010 [Data Table]

European CPV Manufacturers

Graphs
- CPV Panel Production (MWp), by concentration ratio, 2007-2010
- CPV GaAs Cell Production (kWp), 2002-2010
- CPV Panel Production (MWp), 2002-2010

Tables
- Market Share of CPV GaAs Cell Production (KWp), 2002-2010
- Market Share of CPV Panel Production (MWp), 2002-2010

ENF has a strong commitment to the highest quality. We take the following steps to ensure accurate information in our reports:

Verbal data collection chosen because:

1. The solar industry tends to ignore emails
2. People do not take time to read questions carefully and there are factors that must be stressed (to exclude use of OEM, to use end-of-year capacities etc.)
3. It gave ENF the opportunity to collect additional details on each company through analyst discussion.

Please click for larger image:

The report pack contains:
  - Individual profiles of European cell and panel manufacturers in PowerPoint
  - European market analysis in PowerPoint
  - Individual European cell and panel manufacturer capacity tables (reported) in Excel