The three companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding that involves, initially, exploring cooperation opportunities in areas such as increasing solar cell production and developing photovoltaic inverter and power supply applications.

They say the intention is to move to forming strategic partnerships once feasibility studies have been concluded.

The team brings together ST's strengths in semiconductors for power conversion applications, DelSolar's in solar cell manufacturing and Delta's leading position in switching power supplies. Delta, the leading provider of SPS devices, is now focusing on photovoltaic inverter design and production and sees the collaboration as a way to advance this strategy and become a major player in the fast growing solar energy system market.

"The solar electricity market is set to grow. In 2005 the cumulative installed capacity of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems around the world passed the landmark figure of 5000MWp. Global shipments of PV cells and modules have been growing at an average annual rate of more than 35 percent [according to September 2006 report from the EPIA] for the past few years and we expect that emerging photovoltaic markets such as China, India, and South Korea will become substantial beyond 2010 and will drive commoditization," said Carmelo Papa, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of STs Micro, Power, Analog Group.

RC Liang, Senior Technology Advisor of Delta Group and CEO of DelSolar, said the combination of expertise offered by the three, which spans the full chain from the raw silicon to the inverters and power supplies that deliver electrical energy to the users, would "enable the development of more efficient technologies and products, thereby accelerating the wider use of solar energy."

Despite all the hype, a recent report from Daiwa Institute of Research suggested solar power accounted for only 0.02 percent of the total amount of electricity produced globally in 2004. It suggested this may grow by a factor of 10 by 2010 and be responsible for 0.25 percent of the worlds electricity supply.