Despite a still struggling economy, Vestas and REC, two of Europe's leading renewable energy industry groups, expect demand to pick up during the next year.
REC, Norway's Renewable Energy Corp, is one of the world's biggest producers of solar-grade silicon used in solar panels.
On Wednesday, REC announced that it expects the second half of 2010 to be better than the first.
Vestas, Denmark's world-leading wind turbine maker, also said that it expects deliveries to pick up later in 2010, despite a first-quarter loss.
In 2009, suppliers of renewable energy equipment struggled when orders dropped off as a result of the global financial crisis.
Vestas received no orders from the United States in 2009, which had previously been its biggest market from 2006 to 2008.
Now, however, Vestas reports that the activity in the U.S. business is increasing.
Vestas Chief Executive Ditlev Engel reported that Vestas is well on track to reach its target for order intake this year for turbines with a capacity of 8,000-9,000 megawatts.
A large portion of this year's surge in solar demand has occurred in Germany, where renewable energy developers have rushed to finalize projects before cuts in feed-in-tariffs for new rooftop solar installations are put into place.
REC reported that growth in other markets is expected to compensate for weaker demand in Germany-noting that return on investments on solar power systems will remain positive after the incentive cuts.
The solar industry added a record 6.4 GW of new capacity last year, bringing total capacity to more than 20 GW.
Until next time,
Hilary
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