Higher demand for solar energy, triggered by concerns about global warming, will drive a fourfold increase in the annual revenues of the global solar equipment industry from $20 billion (€15 billion) last year to $90 billion in 2010, according to a report published today by Photon Consulting, a German research group.

Profit growth is expected to accelerate even faster, as costs are contained, pushing margins up to nearly 60 per cent.

The interest manifested by many electricity customers in solar cells as a "green" alternative to fossil fuels is also likely to spur a tenfold surge by 2015 in production of high-purity silicon required for the cells.

Demand for the silicon needed for solar cells is likely to increase from 41,000 tonnes last year to 120,000 tonnes in 2010, and 400,000 tonnes in 2015, the report claims.