Solar

When the financial turmoil began, I sold my riskiest stocks.  Even a successful bailout bill is unlikely to return us to the heady days of 2006 and 2007.  Yet there is a bright side for clean energy investors.  Despite the recent evidence to the contrary, a financial crisis is likely to convince legislators of the importance of getting the economy going again, and of doing so with the least amount of public money possible. Concentrating Solar Power It was with this thought in mind that I attended CSP Today's Second Annual CSP Summit US in San Francisco. ...

Honda Motor Co (HMC) plans to start mass-producing solar cells in 2007, eyeing growing demand for environmentally friendly energy sources. They will build a new factory for thin-film solar cells on the site of a car plant in Kumamoto. The company aims to generate annual sales of $40 million to $70 million from solar cells once the factory's output reaches full annual capacity of 27.5 megawatts, enough to power about 8,000 households. &mdash via Clean Break

MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (WFR) announced that it has signed a non-binding Letter of Intent ("LOI") with Motech Industries, one of the top producers of solar cells in the world today, for the supply of solar wafers to Motech. Under the terms outlined in the LOI, MEMC will supply solar wafers to Motech over an 8-year period, with pre-determined pricing, on a take or pay basis. Sales of the wafers over the 8-year period would generate at least $1.6 billion in revenue to MEMC. Shares of WFR are trading up over 4% in pre-market activity. I...

SatCon Technology Corporation (SATC) nounced the launch of its new 500kW grid connected PowerGate(TM) Photovoltaics inverter with recent orders for the North American market. The 500kW unit rounds out SatCon's family of solar array inverters, including designs for 50kW, 100kW, 225kW and 500kW three-phase applications, and designs for 15 - 30kW single-phase applications. SatCon's products provide a more cost effective alternative for solar integrators by eliminating many of the independent components and field wiring required by other designs. SatCon's photovoltaic inverters include all of the necessary equipment to convert solar array DC power to useable AC power and also...

Spire Corp (SPIR) announced that it has executed a contract to provide EMMVEE Solar Systems Private Limited, Bangalore, India, with a SPI-LINE(TM) 5000M. Spire's advanced photovoltaic (PV) module manufacturing production line includes automated equipment for solar cell stringing and lay-up, lamination, module testing, and related training. EMMVEE Solar Systems selected Spire Corporation as their production line supplier based on Spire's proven experience, the quality of its equipment, and its training program. Shipment of the production line is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2005.

DayStar Technologies Inc (DSTI) and Auxilia, Inc. today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding design and development of fully integrated photovoltaic power systems for the unmanned airship (lighter-than-air vehicle) marketplace. The objective of the agreement is to develop plug-and-play architecture for the existing and developing products of both companies that could enable diverse airship configurations for low, middle and stratospheric altitude applications. DayStar and Auxilia will focus on integrating DayStar's proprietary LightFoil(TM) photovoltaic power product with Auxilia's products by utilizing the Auxilia Airship Simulation Center (AASC). LightFoil(TM) is specifically designed for unmanned airship applications where weight, high...

Tom Konrad, Ph.D. This continues a series of entries on opportunities in solar stocks, based on a panel at Solar 2009.  The first article introduced the panelists, and took a look at the solar sector as a whole.  The others focus on individual companies. Pradeep Haldar Investors remain bullish on thin film technologies such as CdTe (First Solar's technology.) CdTe currently has the lowest cost, but it may not have long term sustainability. Peter Lynch on First Solar (FSLR) If First Solar ever stumbles, gravity will take over. They could fall 50% in a day. They...

Evergreen Solar Inc (ESLR) announced that the company was named to the prestigious New England Technology Fast 50 list. The annual ranking, conducted by Deloitte & Touche LLP and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, designates the fastest-growing companies located in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island by revenue growth.

British Telecom has announced a three-year plan to get all of its energy needs from renewable sources - the biggest such project in the world. The electricity used, worth hundreds of millions of pounds, could power a city the size of Nottingham. Renewable sources of energy include wind, wave and solar power, rather than using fossil fuels like oil or coal.

Magnetek Inc. (MAG) announced that Manhattan's largest functioning Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) power system recently began harvesting energy from the sun.

Acciona's financing of Nevada Solar One, and a recent series of a financing, a prominent hire, and a big announcement from Concentrating Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) developer Ausra has been keeping long-underappreciated Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technology in the news recently.  I consider this great news, because the potential for cheap thermal storage of CSP and the gigantic size of the available resource means that CSP is likely to provide the backbone of reliability for any future decarbonized electric grid where the clear skies which it requires to operate properly and sufficient transmission are available. But CSP is...

Evergreen Solar Inc (ESLR) introduced the new EC-120 is the latest in Evergreen Solar's Cedar Line(TM) of photovoltaic panels. With the same physical dimensions as the Company's current 110-watt and 115-watt panels, the new product delivers increased power from the same area. Through its patented String Ribbon technology, Evergreen Solar produces its panels using significantly less silicon than conventional production methods.

XSUNX Inc. (XSNX) announced that continued product development success has produced large area integrated solar cell modules on transparent polyester films. This represents a milestone for the Company in efforts under its Phase III development program to perfect a scalable manufacturing method for large area solar cells on inexpensive Polyethylenenapthalate, or PEN based thin film plastics. XsunX is an interesting company that was brought to my attention from one of my readers. They are developing transparent films that can be used on normal windows. These films can be used as solar cells to produce energy. First...

SatCon Technology Corporation (SATC) nnounced the completion and delivery of the 100 kW solar inverter for the European market. The significance of this delivery is that SatCon is well positioned to participate in the largest market for solar inverters. SatCon has delivered over 17MW of commercial grade inverters over the past two years and is poised for significant growth as indicated by the pending solar projects in California on the Pacific Gas and Electric website.

Evergreen Solar Inc (ESLR) shares were down 9% on Monday after their primary supplier of raw materials pulled out of a contract. Evergreen Solar relies on granular silicon to make cells for solar panels. This silicon was supplied in part by MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (WFR). MEMC previously agreed to supply Evergreen with 90 metric tons of granular silicon, but in January said it did not intend to ship most of the remaining balance of 53 metric tons. Evergreen plans to used its own crush chunks of silicon, but said it has not fully tested the process...

SatCon Technology Corporation (SATC) announced that it has received multiple purchase orders from four new customers for 13 commercial grade inverters equaling 2.3 megawatts (MW), including an order from one of the largest photovoltaic integrators in North America. In addition, a customer that has been operating a trial unit issued a follow-on purchase order for 3 commercial grade inverters totaling 0.9 MW. These photovoltaic inverters trade named PowerGate(TM) are scheduled for delivery prior to the end of the current fiscal year.