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I find it both amusing and depressing to read some of the stories that hit the technical press.  A current one that falls into this category was the announcement that Veeco is getting out of the business of making and selling CIGS deposition systems.  Veeco had been buying companies to enable them to offer a total package for the deposition of CIGS photovoltaic materials.  These acquisitions had taken place over the last few years and so after such a recent concerted effort to become a major player in the business this was possibly something of a surprise to see them call a halt to the strategy.

I view things somewhat differently.  There is a tendency for large companies to invest heavily and expect an immediate return on their investment.  From what I have seen this rarely happens, or certainly not in the timescale predicted.  My personal view is that Veeco have been impatient and that there is a perfectly good business available for a supplier of systems for CIGS but it will take some growing.  The CIGS photovoltaic business is still at a very early stage and so growth will be hugely variable, this is particularly so where the state of the World economy is variable and there are countries applying and then stopping subsidies for photovoltaic power generation.  This variability does not help the short term cash flow of the supplier companies but if they over-react to each upturn or downturn in market conditions they will struggle as a business. 

CIGS as a material is still being developed and companies are still working to convert research cell efficiency into manufactured cell efficiency.  This is years away from being a turn-key type process. 

I cannot help feeling that if everybody was more realistic about growth opportunities and more practical about growing their business they would have a sustainable business that would be more stable through the various boom and bust cycles that the market can deliver.

What is clear is that the manufacturers of CIGS type solar cells are still growing rapidly and are still buying equipment and simply because on big named supplier has chosen to miss the market will not affect the growth one iota.  I would imagine that all the suppliers of roll-to-roll CIGS deposition systems are delighted at having one less competitor.