January 2012

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Opportunities in Smart Lighting

The “smart lighting” concept means different things to different people, but distilling its essence, what seems to be intended is lighting with an additional layer of intelligence that provides enhanced functionality; creating opportunities over and above the simple provision of light where it is needed.  Smart lighting systems today, generally consist of sensors located at light fixtures, which are networked back to a central controller. They distinguish themselves in the marketplace by the nature of the sensor, how the networking is provided and the degree to which they provide management information. For the immediate future, smart lighting opportunities are strongly focused on improving energy efficiency, but NanoMarkets believes that the addressable markets for smart lighting will expand to include environments where the benefits being sold will include improved aesthetics, comfort and even improved health.

Changes in PV and What It Means for Transparent Conductors

NanoMarkets anticipates significant challenges to the status quo in the photovoltaics (PV) market in the coming decade. The PV sector as a whole is entering a period of flat or moderate growth in the next couple of years, and the industry remains highly cost sensitive. Meanwhile, the ongoing shift in market share toward thin-film PV (TFPV) is changing the accepted landscape of available PV technologies. This movement, in turn, is causing a shift in demand for transparent conductors (TCs) in PV applications from market-dominant crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV that uses little or no TCs to TFPV that, in most cases, requires the use of high performance TC electrodes.

UDC’s Prospects in the OLED World to Come

In this article NanoMarkets considers the strengths and potential vulnerabilities of Universal Display (UDC) as the OLED market evolves from small displays to television and lighting.  In the short term NanoMarkets sees great upside for UDC but longer term the company can expect more serious challenges that could derail its success.

Applications Driving Growth in Conductive Coatings

Much of the conductive coatings business involves mature applications manufactured using equally mature materials.  In these mature materials markets, there are few real opportunities as such.  At best, these sectors are “cash cows.”  The good news, however, is that a few key applications are open to new materials and new suppliers.

The Importance of Electrodes for Lithium Battery Performance Improvement

Lithium-ion batteries are a technology poised to see a large growth in revenue in the next five years because of their potential in applications such as electric vehicles (EVs), consumer electronic devices and Smart Grid applications. That there is a clamoring in the market for a drastic improvement in lithium-ion battery technology is obvious to see:

Reality Check On CIGS PV

After years of results that have been disappointing compared to consensus expectations,  it is high time to take a sober look at the market for CIGS going forward in light of the current state of the technology and competitiveness of CIGS compared to other PV technologies.  Other factors playing into the mix are the likelihood of decreased subsidies for PV going forward in North America and Europe, and the effect of significant increases in known reserves of natural gas, which have lowered and stabilized prices compared to the volatility and high prices seen in the 2007-2008 timeframe.

December 2011

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Smart Windows Markets Emerge

After many years of being no more than a niche, the smart windows market now seems as if it is about to generate major revenues for companies that are actively involved.  Drivers include:

• Growing consumer awareness of energy conservation, green building, fuel efficient transportation, and the desire for novelty and convenience.

• Larger addressable markets as the result of emerging middle class populations in Asia (India, China) and Latin America (Brazil).

Meanwhile, new smart windows technologies are emerging that enable energy conservation through smart windows and hence are providing several growth opportunities for various companies in the smart window value chain.

The Role of NanoMetals and their Future in Electronics and Energy

At the nanoscale materials of all kinds—including metals—are higher performing.  In the case of nanometals, the performance characteristics of most importance tend to be thermal and electrical conductivity; although physical strength may factor in. Combining all these advantages together seems likely to be highly advantageous and NanoMarkets believes that the marketplace is beginning to reflect this fact; nanometals are a growing sector of the nanomaterials business.

November 2011

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Thoughts on Transparent Electronics

There is nothing intrinsically new about transparent electronic materials.  Glass and (more recently) transparent plastic have been used as substrates for displays, solar panels and large-area sensors for years.  In addition, a range of transparent conducting materials—notably indium tin oxide (ITO)—has been developed for use in transparent electrodes.  And, of course, optoelectronic materials—of which there are many—must be transparent to some degree.

Until quite recently the statements above were at best a set of interesting, but unconnected, observations.  Over the past decade new transparent electronic semiconductor materials—primarily metallic oxides—have appeared and there are now increasing signs that a complete transparent materials set may emerge in the electronics sector. These materials, NanoMarkets believes, will serve as an important enabling factor for new products in the display, smart windows, lighting, solar panel and large-area sensor markets; perhaps other sectors too.

Ongoing Importance of Silver Inks and Pastes to Industrial Electronics Markets

Silver has always been an expensive metal and probably always will be.  But the most obvious change in the silver inks/pastes market since our last report is the seemingly persistent high price of silver, with no relief in sight.  Silver commodity prices have been pushed upward because of the uncertain global economic environment in which investors have shifted increasingly toward “hard” assets. Silver ETFs have accumulated large stores of silver in order to handle the increased demand for precious metal investments.

At the time of writing, silver prices have somewhat stabilized, but they have done so at a level nearly twice that of just two years ago (in inflation-adjusted dollars).  And there are no good reasons that the situation will change very much over the next five years or so.

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