Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) technology has solid growth prospects, even as the overall PV industry is reeling from rapidly declining panel prices, cutbacks in government support and failing firms, according to a new report from industry analyst firm NanoMarkets.
NanoMarkets estimates that the total market value of DSC modules at the application level will grow from about $40 million in 2012 to over $500 million by 2015. Then, after building-integrated PV (BIPV) applications for DSC PV take off, the firm anticipates that DSC market value will exceed $4.4 billion by 2019.
At the same time, the market for DSC materials is expected to grow from a value of just under $12 million in 2012 to over $1.2 billion by 2019.
In the past two years, the DSC market has come of age and has moved out of its research and development phase. The performance of DSCs is now comparable with that of amorphous-silicon (a-Si) PV, but with much more potential than a-Si for performance improvements, according to NanoMarkets. DSC PV also offers the ability to be deployed on flexible substrates and perform under non-peak insolation.
