Yingli Joins The $1 Club; China Solar Slows
Bottom line: A new second wave of consolidation is likely to occur in China’s solar panel sector later this year, with money-losing companies like Yingli and ReneSola as the most likely acquisition targets. Looming signs of new trouble are brewing in the solar panel sector, with shares of Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) taking a bath after the company reported widening losses and slowing revenue growth. The 15 percent sell-off saw Yingli’s shares re-approach an all-time low from just 2 and a half years ago, as the company joined a small but growing club of US-listed solar panel makers...
SolarCity’s Investor Disconnect
by Debra Fiakas CFA This week solar panel installer SolarCity (SCTY: Nasdaq) made its first earnings announcement following its initial public offering in December 2012. The event was much anticipated even if only to get a glimpse of the company’s most notable (or it’s that notorious?) investor Elan Musk. Billionaire Musk was mostly recently in the public eye because of a spat with a New York Times reporter over one of Musk’s other major investments, Tesla Motors (TSLA: Nasdaq). The reporter was entrusted to road test one of Tesla’s electric sports cars...
Why I Believe in Thin Film
Analyzing Solar Stocks With False Assumptions Dana Blankenhorn When most people think of solar energy, they see flat panels on a roof. They don't think about thin film. They don't see it. This is one of the many advantages of CIGS and other thin film solar technologies. So what if its efficiency is half that of a panel? It conforms to the shape of the place where it lays. Thin film can also be productized in ways no panel can. It can be turned into something retailers can sell or bloggers will...
Your Solar Panels Aren’t Facing the Wrong Way
Tom Konrad CFA Dilemma Compass photo via Bigstock Contrary to some confused bloggers, solar panels produce the most electricity over the course of a year when pointed south, not west. A recent report from the Pecan Street Research Institute started a chain of articles with increasingly inaccurate conclusions. The lemmings at Quartz, Gizmodo, and Grist, followed each other off the cliff of delusion saying that homeowners could produce more power by pointing their solar panels west, rather than south. (UPDATE: Now even USA Today is jumping off.) The title of...
Community Solar Providers In Orange and Rockland Territory
See the Buyer's Guide to New York Community Solar for details on how New York community solar works and lists for other utility territories.
Updated 9/8/2020
VENDOR NAME
PRICING STRUCTURE
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
SPECIAL OFFERS
IPP Solar Integration LLC
10% discount subscription model
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Clearway Community Solar
10% discount subscription model
Cancellation free if replacement found or with 90 day notice, otherwise $200 termination fee
Community Power Partners
10% discount subscription model
no cancellation fee with 90 days notice, no credit checks and no payment information required
Nexamp Inc.
10% discount subscription model
No cancellation fees and long-term contracts
Oya Solar Inc.
10% discount subscription model
Contract for specified period needs to be signed
Astral Power
10% discount subscription model
No cancellation fee....
Solar Trends in 2014 and Beyond
Benefits, Barriers, and Chances Paula Mints Time is the primary difference between a fad and a trend. Fads are fleeting. Trends develop over time altering behavior in some relatively permanent fashion. The adverb relatively is used as permanence has become, over time, far less permanent. Fads ebb and flow more quickly than trends. The best way to tell the difference, unfortunately, is in hindsight. For example, the European feed-in tariff (FIT) model is responsible for jump starting the utility scale (or multi-megawatt) application for solar technologies. The initial highly profitable FITs attracted investors who, forever in pursuit...
The Top Ten PV Manufacturers: What The List Doesn’t Mean
by Paula Mints Every year at this time lists of lessons learned during the previous year give way to lists of top ten PV manufacturers. It’s time to ask what these lists mean, and whether they have a purpose to the ongoing growth and health of the photovoltaic industry. So Many Numbers, So Little Time There is more than one way to size the photovoltaic industry and unfortunately, much of the time are the metrics are considered to be synonymous. The PV industry is sized by capacity, shipments, production, module assembly capacity, installations and...
Signs Of Trouble For Chinese Solar Stocks
Doug Young Regular readers will know I’m a bit bearish lately on the solar panel manufacturing sector, largely because I believe its recent rebound is being fueled as much by hype as real business after a prolonged downturn. A new report on some of the sector’s so called “growth engines”, coupled with a separate report on a dispute at one of the top surviving players, are adding fuel to my skepticism that the sector’s recent sharp rebound isn’t really happening. At the very least, the recent reports indicate the rebound isn’t nearly as strong as many are claiming,...
China Solar Update: LDK, Canadian Solar, First Solar & Sunpower
Doug Young There're quite a few news bits coming from the solar sector today, with more downbeat news from struggling LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) even as 2 western panel makers make important new inroads to the China market. Meantime, Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) is also getting some good news in the form of new financing from a major western commercial lender for a new solar power project in Canada. Let's start with the LDK news, as it's easily the most downbeat in this flurry of new reports. For anyone who doesn't follow the sector too closely, LDK is...
Community Solar Providers In Central Hudson Territory
See the Buyer's Guide to New York Community Solar for details on how New York community solar works and lists for other utility territories.
VENDOR NAME
PRICING STRUCTURE
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
SPECIAL OFFERS
Ampion
10% discount subscription model
Free cancellation with 90-day notice, excess credit is banked. Opt-in options through municipalities available.
$50 donation to local sustainability fund
Astral Power
10% discount subscription model (Broker for solar farms)
No cancellation fee. Bill needed in customer’s name
$100 donation to Food Bank of the Hudson Valley
Community Power Partners
10% discount subscription model
no cancellation fee with 90 days notice, no credit checks and no payment information required
Nexamp Inc.
10% discount subscription model
No cancellation fees and long-term...
What Just Happened: First Solar’s Strategy Shifts
2016 was a wild year and not just for solar and after decades of reliance on government incentives, subsidies and mandates the global solar industry may be inured to unpredictability but the industry as a whole should be wary of global trends. Solar PV expert Paula Mints looked at a number of the developments for solar companies in the December edition of SPV Market Research's Solar Flare. Adapted for AltEnergyStocks.com, this series of articles is reprinted with permission.
Though First Solar (FSLR) indicated recently that 2017 would be a transition year there is no indication from the company’s behavior...
New Energy Exchange Limited Has A Market Cap of $3 Million, But Owns $54...
Esplanade Capital Issues Open Letter to the Board of New Energy Exchange Limited Urges the Company to Reregister with the SEC to Maximize Value for Shareholders Esplanade Capital LLC, a significant shareholder of New Energy Exchange Limited (OTC PINK: EBODF), announced today that it has issued an open letter to the Board urging the Company to reregister with the SEC in order to maximize value for shareholders. The full text of the letter follows: April 25, 2017 New Energy Exchange Limited (f.k.a. Renewable Energy Trade Board Corp.) Board of Directors Shun Tak Centre West Tower...
Yingli Can Make Debt Payment, But It’s Still Weak
Doug Young Bottom line: Yingli appears to be in financial distress but will avoid defaulting on debt obligations coming due next week, while China’s broader solar panel sector is likely to face new anti-dumping tariffs in Europe later this year. The solar panel sector has become quite a turbulent place these days, riding high one day on reports of major new plant construction, only to stumble the next on signs of conflict and financial distress. This kind of conflicting news reflects the fact that the industry is still in the midst of a major overhaul that could...
More Pain Ahead for Solar Stocks
Tom Konrad CFA Clean Edge's Clean Energy Trends 2012 contains some disturbing predictions for solar stock investors. Clean Energy Trends 2012, the annual report from Clean Edge by Ron Pernick, Clint Wilder, and Trevor Winnie, was released today. On the surface, it seems like good news for the solar sector. Although headlines in 2011 featured much bad press for Solar PV, the industry has not been "withering on the vine." Here are some key points in the report: Combined global revenue for PV increased from $71.2 billion in 2010 to $91.6 billion...
Residential Solar in the Ontario microFIT Project: Three Families’ Experiences
Michael Smele Solar Home with sunflower photo via Bigstock The Ontario microFIT program was launched in 2009 as part of Ontario’s provincial government’s efforts to increase the production of renewable energy. The program provides participants with the opportunity to develop a “micro” renewable electricity generation project on their privately owned property that uses solar photovoltaic (PV), wind, waterpower, or bioenergy (biogas, biomass, landfill gas). I have asked three families who navigated the process of microFIT solar installations to share their experience by answering some questions. ...
Ten Alternative Energy Speculations for 2008: Geothermal, Wind and Wave, and Thin Film Hype
This article is a continuation of my Ten Alternative Energy Speculations for 2008, with picks #8, 9, and10 published last Thursday. If you haven't already, please read the introduction to that article before buying any of the stock picks that follow. These companies are likely to be highly volatile, and large positions are not appropriate for many investors. My least risky picks are part of that same article linked to above; the moderately risky picks are here. This article contains the most speculative three picks. #3 Nevada Geothermal Power (OTCBB:NGLPF or Toronto:NGP.V) US$1.29 or CAD$1.26 Geothermal first started catching...
