FT.com / Companies / Utilities - Solar industry glare attracts tech groups - 0 views
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Marco Cantamessa on 16 Feb 11Photovoltaic panels are apparently following a nice s-curve, with 100% year-on-year growth. But this has happened mostly because of public subsidies, which are about to be reduced, also because cash-strapped governments will not be able to bear the burden of generous feed-in tariffs in the future. The impact is likely to be critical for highly-levered operators, who will find it difficult to service their debt, and for PV makers, who are likely to discover that the industry has a serious problem with oversupply. Add the likelihood of some breakthrough innovation leading to a new generation of cheaper and/or more efficient cells, and you see a critical investment case.