If Sunrise Solar has its way, solar cells will increasingly be used for much more than roof-top power plants.

The San Antonio, Texas, company, which announced Tuesday its first two products will be commercially available by the end of the year, plans to market solar cell-toting consumer products like light-emitting walkway bricks, power-generating sunroofs and phone chargers.

Some analysts, however, see more fluff than substance in the growing solar-powered consumer products market.

Sunrise was founded in 2000 as a biodiesel production facility. But this year the company switched gears, selling its biodiesel operations and focusing on commercializing and distributing solar energy products.

“Solar power is becoming increasingly cost-effective and new technologies continue to offer more choices for the energy and environmentally conscious consumer,” said Eddie Austin, chairman and chief executive of Sunrise Solar.

The move underscores the potential market many entrepreneurs see in consumer products powered by solar energy, a secondary market for solar technology that has made its biggest gains to date in electricity generation for homes, businesses, and utilities. Solar-powered motion-sensing cameras, solar-powered water bottles, and solar-powered video game kiosks, among others, are now available on the market.  

Morningstar analyst Rick Hanna expects a “proliferation” of solar devices as the cost of the technology drops. He expects prices for solar cells to decrease by 10 percent to 15 percent per year once new supplies of silicon, an important raw material for the cells, become available as soon as next year.  

“Whenever you have a rapid decline in the cost curve of an industry, good things will happen around products,” said Hanna.

But not all analysts are so optimistic about the potential for phone chargers and water bottles embedded with solar cells.

“I don’t see this as an interesting market for the near or medium term,” said Jonathan Hoopes, head of clean-tech research for Think Panmure. He said the consumer market “pales in comparison” to the power-generation market.

While perhaps not extraordinary, the market seems primed to grow. The Freedonia Group predicts the U.S. market for portable solar power products will grow by 33 percent to $40 million by 2013. The research group expects solar cells to increasingly be used in portable computers and personal communications devices to supplement battery performance.

But Freedonia expects portable solar cells to eventually be replaced by another up-and-coming technology: fuel cells.

In the meantime, the growth of the consumer product market should benefit leading suppliers of solar cells like Japan’s Sharp and SANYO, the U.K.’s BP, and Germany’s SCHOTT and SolarWorld.

Sunrise shares, which trade over the counter, were down 1.47 percent to $0.67 per share, at the end of trading.