‍Press Release / Berlin, 7th February 2013:

Headlines like “SIEMENS leaves the Solar sector”, “BOSCH-Solar losing billions” and “Solarworld fights for its future” imply that cheap products from Asia are superseding European companies. But a new study of MAPEGY shows that the focus of Asian companies is no longer only in copying other products but moving towards innovation and development.

This is supported by looking at the number of experts and a company ranking in the field of solar technology. Roughly 10 percent of the 100,000 globally active experts are from Germany, whilst the majority comes from Asia. Rankings of the 21,000 globally active companies show their respective focus on solar and other energy technologies.

Driven by smaller and medium-sized companies, the solar industry continues to develop dynamically. Compared to other energy technologies (bio-, and nuclear energy as well as clean coal, hydropower, geothermal and tidal energy), only wind energy shows a similar development in the last decade. This is evident by looking at technology push (patents, scientific publications, investments) and market pull indicators (social media, web, press).

The study offers a cutting-edge approach through an in-depth analysis of the last two decades of technological development within the solar industry. Relevant facts from global scientific publications, patents, press and web content were analyzed and visualized in order to produce easy to understand results.

To download an excerpt in English or German, please contact us at team@mapegy.com