DuPont announced that it will expand production of its Solamet thick film metallization pastes at its Electronic Materials DuPont Dongguan Ltd. facility. The company will more than double manufacturing capacity as part of its overall strategy to more than triple its sales to the photovoltaic industry.

The company said it expects that its sales into photovoltaics within the next five years will be over $1 billion -- up from about $300 million today. DuPont anticipates that the PV market will grow by more than 30% in each of the next several years, driving demand for existing and new materials that are more cost effective.

"The PV industry is in the midst of a substantial surge globally, and demand for solar as a renewable energy source will continue to increase," said Timothy P. McCann, vice president and general manager -- DuPont Electronic Technologies.

The pastes are used for front and back side metallization of solar cells, enabling solar cell manufacturers to significantly reduce their cost per watt by achieving higher cell efficiencies, higher production yields and lower material consumption.

The expansion is in line with several other significant investments DuPont has made in product development and capacity increases for the photovoltaic solar energy market, including a recent announcement that it soon will begin construction on a research center in Hong Kong and a manufacturing facility in Shenzhen to help meet demand for new and existing products that serve the emerging amorphous silicon thin film PV market.