PV solar technologies use thin silicon layers to harness light photons from the sun to produce electricity. A number of new low cost "thin film" technologies are emerging, as well.

For example, First Solar's thin film PV has led to the lowest cost per watt of any publicly traded company. First Solar reported their annual revenues moved from $52.7 million in 2006 to $200.8 million by at the end of 2007.

PVs can be used to charge batteries for powering off-grid homes and businesses. PV panels can also be tied directly into the power grid, letting people forgo batteries to store their solar generated power. Grid-inverters hook right into a home's main service panel and allows the PV-generated electricity to flow into the shared power grid. This arrangement reverses meter and enables homeowners to reduce or eliminate their electric utility bill.

The CSP or solar thermal power plants generate electricity by concentrating the sun's energy to produce steam, which is used to drive turbines and generators. SEIA reports that CSP increased 18 percent in 2007 in the U.S. due in large part to Nevada Solar One coming online June 2007. It is the first utility-scale CSP plant placed in service since the last Mohave Desert plant was completed in 1991. The largest CSP project in the world is currently being built by Spain-based Abengoa Solar for Arizona Public Service.

Solar Millennium AG is a German-based global solar company with a focus on solar thermal power plants. Together with its subsidiaries, Solar Millennium has specialized in parabolic trough power plants. Solar Millennium covers all of the important business sectors within the value-added chain of solar thermal power plants, from the project development to the technology, from the turnkey construction of the plants to the operation and ownership of power plants.

Solar Millennium has developed Europe's first parabolic trough power plants in Spain, with two of the plants already under construction. Further projects with a capacity of several hundred megawatts are currently being planned worldwide in Spain, the United States, China, and North Africa. The company is also developing solar chimney power plants with the aim of making this technology ready for the market.

The interest in solar thermal power is growing by all stakeholder groups, especially by shareholders, power authorities, politicians, and institutional investors. Said Sven Moormann, head of corporate communications for Solar Millennium, "Solar thermal power plants are able to replace conventional, fossil-fuel power plants. They can generate cost-effective electricity on demand using heat energy captured from solar radiation."

As more solar manufacturers increase their production, the cost of producing electricity per watt decreases. Solar companies are creating new technologies that use less silicon, which also decreases costs. As demand for solar products continues to grow, solar companies are seeing dramatic increases in revenue. SEIA reports that PV installations grew 48.5 percent last year in US, led by large installations by military and big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and others. Likewise, CSP projects are growing rapidly, with 4,500 megawatts of CSP powered projects in the pipeline.