November 29, 2010 - Seven of the 10 biggest expansions this year for PV solar cell/module manufacturing will be at Chinese companies, collectively tacking on 6.4GW, according to research firm iSuppli.

It's a pretty clear equation by now: European countries are the end-market installers, and China has "a dominant position" in making those cells and modules, notes Greg Sheppard, iSuppli's chief research officer, in a statement. And with those Chinese suppliers now racing among themselves to expand manufacturing, that will only cement the nation's dominance in PV cell/module supplies.

A look at some of the more active PV makers:

• China's LDK Solar, adding the most capacity (1.42GW worth) this year for both crystalline silicon cells (1.3GW) and c-Si modules (120kW). "LDK is adding enormous amounts of capacity as it tries to keep pace with fellow Chinese solar suppliers," Sheppard noted.

• REC from Norway "is reinvigorating its cell and module business with a giant new campus in Singapore," adding 1.09GW of new manufacturing capacity.

• JA Solar is tops in c-Si cell expansion, with 700MW out of the 1GW total additions for that technology.

The PV industry will spend about $11B in 2010 on production equipment, including ingots, polysilicon, and wafers, iSuppli estimates. That's being driven by doubling of sales for solar panels, plus pent-up demand following a slow capex environment in 2009. Thin-film companies "have been relatively small spenders this year," iSuppli notes, as they absorb a lot of recently added capacity. First Solar, for example, has focused on increasing its capacity through efficiency improvements rather than buying new equipment.