Update 1-Interview-Consolidation to hit solar in 2010-BP Solar

* BP Solar not looking to acquire any companies

* Could cut panel costs faster than expected

* Sees Italy as top growth market in 2010

LOS ANGELES, Nov 19 (Reuters) - More consolidation could hit the solar power industry in 2010, as tough competition and falling prices hit companies sitting on high cost assets and loaded with debt, the chief executive of BP Solar told Reuters on Thursday.

BP Solar, a unit of BP Plc (BP.L), and other solar companies are seeing demand for the renewable energy systems pick up after a dismal year of difficult financing and a tumble in panel prices, but panel prices will continue to drop.

"For some people there will be momentum. For others, they will struggle to meet the cost reductions and the price reductions," BP Solar CEO Reyad Fezzani told Reuters in an interview.

Fezzani said BP Solar did its own version of consolidation, shuttering more expensive factories, such as phasing out module assembly at its plant in Frederick, Maryland.

BP Solar has been in the industry for nearly 40 years and has about 1 gigawatt of installed or sold capacity for solar power systems.

"My expectation is that we will see more of the expensive end of the cost curve be whittled down and cut back," Fezzani said.

Next year looks bright for BP Solar, with "very robust sales" for the first quarter of 2010, said Fezzani, who expects Italy to be the company's top growth market next year.

Overall, BP Solar is gearing up to grow 40 to 50 percent next year, Fezzani said.

The executive expects panel prices, which have plummeted as much as 50 percent over the last year, to return to a more normal rate of decline.

BP Solar could cut solar power panel costs faster than previously estimated.

The company has targeted a 25 percent cut in panel costs by the end of 2010, and it could make those reductions a quarter or two earlier than its target date, Fezzani said.

The company set that goal to make the renewable energy systems more competitive with traditional electricity. (Reporting by Laura Isensee; editing by Carol Bishopric)