November 6, 2007 — SAN JOSE, CA — SEMI, the global industry association of companies providing equipment, material, and services for the manufacture of semiconductors, displays, photovoltaic cells, and related products, as well as Freiburg Wirtschaft Touristik und Messe GmbH & Co (FWTM) and Solar Promotion GmbH, organizers of Intersolar, the world’s largest trade fair for solar technology, today announced a partnership to host Intersolar North America. The new exposition will be the largest trade event serving the full solar energy supply chain in the United States, and will be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on July 15-17, 2008, in conjunction with SEMICON West, the world’s first and most prestigious industry event dedicated to microelectronics manufacturing.
The rapidly growing worldwide market for solar thermal and photovoltaic products, equipment, materials, and services is being driven by the rising cost of fossil fuel, increasing attention to global environmental degradation and technological advancement in cost-effective solar energy. Recent estimates project the global solar photovoltaic (PV) market to grow from US$13 billion today to over $40 billion in 2012, when electricity produced by PV technology will reach grid parity in many parts of the world. To help companies take better advantage of these unprecedented opportunities, both Intersolar and SEMI have been serving the solar energy supply chain with trade events, market promotion, and other market development activities for several years.
Intersolar, held in Munich, Germany, has become the world’s largest tradefair for solar technology and focuses on the areas of photovoltaic technologies, solar thermal technology, and solar architecture. Currently, SEMI organizes a range of PV-related events including PVJapan, the PV Fab Managers Forum and PV-focused technical events at major expositions such as SEMICON Taiwan, SEMICON China, SEMICON Europa, and SEMICON West. This agreement comes as a response to the rapid expansion of solar energy markets worldwide and the need for cooperation between all the major industry participants to serve the increasingly global supply chain and customer base.
“Like semiconductors, solar energy is poised to become an essential and ubiquitous part of modern life, and is one of the largest and fastest-growing technology sectors on the planet. Furthermore, similar manufacturing technology is pervasive in the two industries,” says Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI. “With nearly 20 percent of the SEMI membership actively involved in PV manufacturing technology, the co-location of SEMICON West and Intersolar is a logical and highly complementary collaboration.”
“We are pleased to join forces with SEMICON to increase the value of our respective expositions,” says Dr. Bernd Dallmann, CEO of Freiburg Wirtschaft Touristik und Messe GmbH & Co. “Intersolar addresses the full spectrum of solar technologies. Like SEMICON, there is a focus on photovoltaic technology. With an additional focus on solar-thermal, architectural, components, and other related products and technologies, Intersolar will contribute a wider audience. Together, SEMICON and Intersolar present a broader range of opportunities for exhibitors and buyers,” says Markus Els