Green technologies :Solar industry 2011

 Fourteen Tectonic Shifts for Green from GreentechSolar First, the good news.The renewable industry will roll on. Solar grew by an astounding 93 percent to 125 percent in 2010 and the waiting lists for electric cars exceed the output. Washington passed the tax credits.The bad news? Competition will remain as fierce as ever. Here are some predictions on how the face and shape of industry might change. I’m calling these tectonic shifts because they mark how the roles that different greentech companies occupy will change. Plus, if I called it “Predictions for 2011,” you might just barf.1. Solar Will Become Like the PC Industry, Part II. Two years ago, we predicted that the solar industry would spread rapidly through better marketing and an increasingly horizontal industry structure that would allow specialists to improve products, reduce prices and make money at the same time.Overall, it’s happened. Solar makers have begun to tailor different panels for different applications. Concepts for cutting installation costs from Solon, Zep Solar and SunPower have arrived. DuPont, Dow, 3M and others have also continued to refine coatings and membranes.Now here’s the second part of the PC analogy. The people on top of the industry will begin to change. Remember how Packard-Bell and Compaq used to be the top PC makers in the world? Or how AST was once a dominant figure in the business market? All have now been chased to the tar pits.In solar, Yingli Green Energy and Trina have gone from the fringes of respectability to being producers of bankable modules with recognized brand names. In 2010, Suntech was suddenly not the only well-known Chinese solar producer.Canadian Solar, a Chinese-Canadian company, wants to be a top-five module producer in a few years, CEO Shawn Qu told me. There is no reason why they couldn’t be.Excellent overview on possible developments in the industry.Please take the time to read the whole piece.