Applied MAterials - China Daily CEO Interview.

Solar power looks into a brighter future

"China has 700 GW in electrical storage capacity. The demand is increasing 10 percent a year, so by 2010, when 15 percent renewable energy (of the total energy supply) is required by China's 11th Five-Year Plan, there needs to be 100 GW. That's really a lot compared with what we have now."


Found by Jshi5 of Yahoo.

AMAT Sunfab Thin Film Line Brochure.

BTW, here's the sunfab line.

AMAT is planning a massive move into Solar.

Fueling the Solar Energy Boom - Applied Materials


"In 2007, Applied's solar equipment sales amounted to only $165 million, or less than 2% of its $9.7 billion in revenues. But the company says it expects the business to generate up to a quarter of sales by 2010, or about $2.5 billion to $3 billion annually. Its ambitious goal: for Applied equipment to be used in the making of nearly three-quarters of all the solar panels forecast to be produced in 2011."


Note: See comments at the original site to see explanation of the "seven to 10 times" statement.

Nice product by Applied Materials

Applied Materials Revolutionizes Solar Module Manufacturing with Breakthrough SunFab Thin Film Line

Applied Materials, Inc. today introduced its revolutionary Applied SunFab(TM) Thin Film Line, the world's first and only integrated production line for manufacturing thin film silicon solar modules using 5.7 square meter (m2) glass panels. These ultra-large substrates, sized at 2.2m x 2.6m, are four times bigger than today's largest thin film solar production panels. The Applied SunFab Line defines a new standard for the industry that can be replicated by customers around the globe to rapidly establish solar panel manufacturing capacity and achieve the lowest production cost per watt to drive down the cost of solar electricity.


I'd like to see what the costs work out to, but this seems good on first look.