NanoMarkets, an market research and analysis firm, released one solar industry report this week and is prepared to release two more in early May. The firm offers in-depth research on emerging technologies and advanced materials, said spokesman Robert Nolan. “It’s a good way for some manufacturers and producers to see where their products are being used downstream,” Nolan said.

The reports dive deeply into industry data and offer insight that can be used in forecasting the future of market segments within the solar industry. The report out this week suggests that dye-sensitized solar has a bright future and is gaining ground as it grows more efficient and becomes a better candidate for wide-spread commercialization. The firms other two reports look at the rather dim future for organic solar photovoltaics and the emerging growth opportunities and challenges in the building-integrated solar industry.

NanoMarkets has been examining the solar industry for six years. “There was a lot of growth in the market in that time,” Nolan said. But recent softness resulting from subsidy cuts in Europe and the United States have slowed the whole industry, he said. That slowdown isn’t just impacting solar manufacturers and suppliers, Nolan said, it’s impacting the research industry as well.

NanoMarkets sells its reports to industry leaders and businesses researching the industry to determine if they want to get into it and how they want to enter. As the market slows, so has the demand for research. But Nolan said the firm predicts the demand will return as emerging markets open for solar development. The reports also document the coming and going of different technologies and indicate what direction solar is heading and where it might end up in the future.