Can your roof provide your electrical needs? - The growth prospect of building-integrated photovoltaic

There has been an unprecedented growth of photovoltaic market in the last five years. Industry analysts estimate the world market to exceed 15 GW in 2020. Which are the technologies that would dominate the market then? In this paper, I shall outline the growth prospect for the thin film amorphous silicon technology developed at United Solar. The roll-to-roll approach for production lowers manufacturing cost; the flexible products can also be easily integrated with the roof. A marketing strategy has been developed where alliances have been made with roofing contractors or roofing material manufacturers to sustain the growth. The superior performance of the product and the new sales strategy have resulted in a 100% growth in sales volume from 2003 to 2004. Future plans for expansion will be discussed.