Top Ten Solar

2. Suntech Power

Suntech Power has built up the manufacturing muscle to deliver crystalline silicon solar panels at lower costs than many competitors. The Chinese company reached 1 gigawatt of solar cell production capacity at its factories in China by the end of 2008. The Chinese public company also is seeing results from its investment in what it calls the Pluto technology, which can boost the rate of sunlight-to-electricity conversion of solar cells to close to 20 percent. That will help it to close the gap with SunPower, which makes cells with 22 percent efficiency and sell the panels at higher prices. Most of the solar panels sold today are made with crystalline silicon.

The United States is the market to conquer, and the federal government is expected to dole out grants, loans and other incentives in earnest in 2010. Although most of its customers are still in Europe, Suntech has been aggressive in expanding its network of dealers in the U.S. residential market, growing from around 30 by the end of 2008 to more than 100 a few months later. Suntech also entered the project development business when it announced last October that it was buying installer EI Solutions and forming a joint venture called Gemini Solar Development, which recently won a contract to develop a 30-megawatt solar farm for the city of Austin. The company generated $111 million in profit on $1.92 billion in revenue last year.

Suntech risks of spreading its resources too thin – the company also is developing amorphous silicon thin films and building-integrated components. There is no shortage of competitors in each of the market segments it's attacking (see First Solar item above). Trina Solar, a fellow Chinese solar panel maker, produces its own silicon ingots and wafers for making solar cells, which are then assembled into panels for installation. Japan's Kyocera Solar and Sharp and Germany-based SolarWorld are other companies focusing their resources on manufacturing.