SEMI PV Group - The Grid, September 2011 IN THIS ISSUE PV Equipment Book-to-Bill Ratio Drops Below Parity Launch of Feed-in Tariff Raises Expectations for Japan's PV Market Power Electronics Roundup: GE, Solarbridge Receive DOE Funding Europe: PV at the Edge of Grid Parity USA: Congress Returns to Busy Fall Schedule, Energy Bills on the Docket US Solar Industry Net Global Exporter by 1.9B in 2010 Middle East Will Rank Amoung the Fastest Growing PV Markets Prof. Martin Green Keynotes CPTIC Technical Conference at SOLARCON China CALENDAR Sept 28 SEMI Northeast Forum: Succeeding in Solar Oct 5-7 PV Taiwan 2011 Nov 9-11 SOLARCON India 2011 Dec 5-7 PVJapan 2011 (NEW DATES!) Mar 20-22, 2012 SOLARCON China 2012 Mar 25-27, 2012 6th PV Fab Managers Forum PARTNER EVENTS SolarTech: Take the 2011 Solar Challenge! Sept 28 Photovoltaics meets Mechanical Engineering and Plant Construction Sept 28 Quality for Photovoltaics 2011 Oct 13-14 Conferencia de la Industria Solar - España 2011 Oct 13-14 Solar Investment Summit - Middle East 2011 Manufacturing session powered by SEMI PV Group Nov 30-Dec 1 PV Power Plants - USA 2011 Jan 16-19, 2012 World Future Energy Summit Feb 9-10, 2012 OTTI: PV Rollout 2012 PV Equipment Book-to-Bill Ratio Drops Below Parity for the First Time in Six Quarters By Bettina Weiss, Executive Director, PV Group We were very excited when we launched the SEMI Worldwide PV Equipment Market Statistics Program in May 2011 with primary data from the past five quarters as a robust beginning. This data collection program and report was created in response to our members' needs for credible data for PV equipment and to satisfy a clear demand for accurate sales and order data on a global basis. The report provides insight to better understand key business trends, market share and to monitor the cyclical trends in the industry. So, together with VDMA in Germany, we developed a comprehensive report to cover bookings and billings data by quarter, by market region, by supply chain segment and by equipment type. Yesterday, we announced the numbers for our sixth quarter (Q2 2011) - worldwide PV manufacturing equipment billings reached $2.03 billion for the quarter ending on June 30, 2011. Billings increased 17 percent quarter-over-quarter, after declining 19 percent in Q1'11. Worldwide bookings, however, extended last quarter's decline, down 18 percent from the previous quarter to $1.79 billion, reaching a five-quarter low. For the first time in the past six quarters, the book-to-bill ratio dipped below parity to 0.88. Bookings dropped significantly which is consistent with the softening of market demand and the over capacity situation. On a positive note, photovoltaic equipment billings remain higher than levels a year ago. The Worldwide Photovoltaic Equipment Market Statistics Report provides worldwide PV manufacturing equipment billings and bookings data on a quarterly basis and is the only PV equipment book-to-bill report based on direct inputs from PV equipment suppliers. (more) Launch of Feed-in Tariff Raises Expectations for Japan's PV Market By Naoke Abe, SEMI Japan For these several years, Japan has promoted its policy to introduce photovoltaics based on two major approaches, the subsidy for residential installation and the surplus power purchase scheme. Europe: PV at the Edge of Grid Parity By Parag Bhamre, EuPD Research Sluggish growth in PV installations in 1H 2011 in the one of the major PV markets ‘Germany' has impacted the global PV industry. PV system prices have declined substantially since the beginning of the year translating into lower costs for generating PV electricity. Middle East Will Rank Amoung the Fastest Growing PV Markets By Severine Scala, Solarpraxis Driven by local and global energy demand, countries in the MENA region are setting up some ambitious projects for renewables, such as the Masdar City program in the United Arab Emirates. U.S. Solar Industry Was a Net Global Exporter in 2010 By Shayle Kann, Greentech Media For the U.S. PV manufacturing industry, 2010 was a record year. Exports totaled more than $5.6 billion, with PV polysilicon feedstock and capital equipment leading all components at $2.5 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively. USA: Congress Returns to Busy Fall Schedule, Energy Bills on the Docket By Jamie Girard, SEMI Having avoided default of the U.S. government in August, Congress has returned to Washington following their annual summer recess to face many of the same unfinished items as before they left. CPTIC Conference at SOLARCON China Welcomes Prof. Martin Green By Jamie Tang, SEMI China SEMI China welcomes Prof. Martin Green as the honorary conference chairman, chairman of international advisory committee, and keynote speaker. Power Electronics Roundup: GE, Solarbridge Receive DOE Funding By Matthew Feinstein, Lux Research GE's award is particularly interesting. The company received UL certification on its 1 MW "Brilliance" central inverter - a solution likely to mesh well with the cadmium telluride (CdTe) module technology from Primestar that GE is currently ramping.

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