In this very interesting interview by Red Herring, Solarworld's CEO, Frank Asbeck was asked if there might be a crash in silicon prices, given that so many companies are now building extra capacity. This is something I've been banging on about in these pages for some time. His answer was very telling;

"Right now we have faith in scarcity. We will have that situation for at least three to five years. Silicon producers will grow with the market, and the market is boosting from maybe €8 billion in sales to far beyond €30 billion in 2010. We have high growth rates, but we still have enough space to grow. "

Also, have a look at this article here - Solar: 3 reasons for optimism which in some detail explains that an increase in government support, an easing of supply bottlenecks and growing demand means that the outlook for solar is still very bright indeed.