When Suntech Power (NYSE: STP) announced a plan to build an amorphous silicon thin-film panel production line two years ago, it had anticipated reaching a 50-megawatt manufacturing capacity and shipping the products in earnest by the end of this year.

The Chinese company still plans to produce thin-film panels, but its market target appears to have changed.

"Given the rapid reduction of the cost of silicon and the module [average selling price], we've decided to go back to our original R&D and production innovation efforts on developing value-added, building integrated applications for thin-film production that would demand a premium price," said Stuart Wenham, Suntech's chief technical officer, during a conference call Thursday to discuss the company's second-quarter earnings.

"In the meantime, we expect a minimal sales of our conventional thin film panels," Wenham added.

The company has built a thin-film line. It's is in the commissioning stages, though it already has roll out 5.7-square-meter panels, Wenham said. Applied Materials in Santa Clara, Calif., is the only company that has developed equipment to make such large amorphous silicon thin films.

Those panels from the initial production could convert 7 percent of the sunlight that strikes them into electricity, Wenham said.

Amorphous silicon thin-film developers face no shortage of skepticism about their ability to market and sell products with efficiencies that are much lower than silicon panels, which dominate the market today.

When silicon was expensive and fetched hundreds of dollars per kilogram a few years back, a slew of companies began to develop alternative technologies that would use little or no silicon.

But pricing for long-term silicon contracts has fallen by about 50 percent over the past year, according to New Energy Finance, a market research firm in London. The poor economy and a glut of panels are mainly to blame for the decline.

Suntech has talked about tackling the building-integrated market before, though the vast majority of its business is in developing and selling silicon panels.

During the conference call on Thursday, a financial analyst asked Suntech executives whether the company would still make the bulky 5.7-square-meter panels for the building-integrated market.

Suntech's CEO, Zhengrong Shi, sounded a little hesitant when he replied, "This panel size is a unique advantage for us to pursue."

"From the beginning, our intention has been to make BIPV thin-film products. Now the market conditions are changing, but we are still pursuing our original plan very aggressively," Shi said.

Suntech also bought MSK of Japan in recent years to tackle the BIPV market.