Solar Power: a radiant market for Mersen #1

Mersen, a major player in the solar power market, gives its insight on this subject in a series of articles.

The solar market continues to ramp up

Representing only 3% of global energy production, the solar energy market potential is huge

Despite a turbulent global environment, solar power capacity increased by 22% in 2020, bringing total installed capacity to 773 gigawatts, ahead of a similar increase again in 2021. And the pace is set to continue accelerating, with capacity expected to double in barely five years to reach nearly 2 terawatts by 2025.

In fact, solar power accounted for 39% of new generation facilities worldwide in 2020, the highest figure ever achieved. But it’s important to put things into perspective: the industry still represents only 3% of global energy production, compared with 70% for fossil fuels and nuclear power.

An energy which is not the cheapest to produce…

Even if solar energy is not the cheapest, production costs for solar power have fallen significantly in recent years. Above all, there’s been a global shift in favor of renewable energies, recently reaffirmed at COP26. If we want to achieve the goal of keeping the global temperature rise below 1.5°C by 2050, we’ll have to invest heavily in cleaner energy sources like solar. Many players are ready to support the ramp-up in production and capacity, and the PV industry has already made enormous progress in a short time. This all points to the market gradually stabilizing and maturing.

Mersen managed to make its mark in this industry where many local players have established strong positions

Mersen is the only Western player still operating in China, where more than 85% of PV cells are now manufactured. The Group clearly positioned itself at the top of the market thanks to its expertise and the quality of its solutions widely recognized by industry leaders. In particular, Mersen has all the technological solutions needed to support growth segments like the Cz process for wafer manufacturing and the PECVD process for solar energy conversion.

In a very demanding industry, where you need a high level of process expertise – especially in high temperatures – to achieve good performance, Mersen is always one step ahead!