Chinese Solar Sector Overhaul Goes Local
Doug Young The latest signs coming from bankrupt solar panel maker Suntech (NYSE: STP) indicate a Beijing-led overhaul for the struggling sector may not be coming after all, and that local governments and other stakeholders may instead become the main rescue agents for these companies. Reports last year had hinted that Beijing was working on a broad plan to retrench the sector, which was suffering from massive overcapacity. But since then most of the problems at the weakest major player LDK (NYSE: LDK), have been handled by the local government and other stakeholders in its home province of...
China Solar Companies: “We Can Survive”
Doug Young A mini flurry of news from embattled solar panel makers seems to have the same singular message, designed to tell investors that they can survive an industry crisis now entering its third year. Of course the companies that emerge when the crisis finally subsidies could be far different from the ones that went into the crisis, which seems to be the message from LDK (NYSE: LDK) in its latest announcement involving its slow takeover by a Chinese investor. At the other end of the spectrum, the message from Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) is a more upbeat,...
SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR) and Graphene Investing
By Jeff Siegel 've said it before, and I'll say it again... If you want to profit from solar, the money is in installation and technology. Certainly SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR) knows this to be true. One of the few U.S. solar plays still around, SunPower surprised analysts with a narrower Q1 loss and sales that exceeded estimates. This, by the way, was due to an increase in installations. No surprise there. And certainly those of us who regularly monitor installation data, which is not hard to come by, have been quietly picking up shares since the start...
2020 Solar Investment Outlook
If you Hate Money, Don't Invest in Solar! It took the solar industry forty years to reach a cumulative global capacity of 100 gigawatts … By 2020, more than 100 gigawatts will be installed in a single year! According to a new report from the good folks over at Greentech Media, the solar industry will install a mind-blowing 135 gigawatts of solar PV projects all across the globe in less than five years. This will push the cumulative market to nearly 700 gigawatts - or about the size of all the electrical generating capacity in Europe today....
SolarCity Rooftop Solar Lease Securitization Advances
by Sean Kidney US firm SolarCity (SCTY) announced last week that it was seeking to make a private placement of a $54.4 million, 13 year bond backed by cash flows from rooftop solar leases. SolarCity is the second-largest U.S. solar company by market capitalization. Lead manager Credit Suisse (CS) has been working on this deal for some time now, which will now only be eligible to be sold to big, qualified investors. It’s been a race this year between them and a US bank to get the first solar rooftop loan securitization our the door. Looks like...
SolarWindow: A Unique But Risky Opportunity
by Debra Fiakas, CFA
SolarWindow (WNDW: OTC/QB) raised $25 million this week to build a manufacturing plant for its electricity-generating glass. Three investors subscribed to 16.7 million shares of common stock. The company is getting $19.8 million in new capital in addition to conversion of $3.6 million in debt to common stock.
The SolarWindow is unlike any other energy producing innovation. Rather than relying some sort of dedicated production plant or facility, the SolarWindow is a part of the electricity user’s own facility. Ultra-thin layers of liquid coatings are sprayed onto a glass surface, forming a network or array of miniature solar cells.
This is a type of photovoltaic technology that uses...
Solar Gets Boring
Tom Konrad CFA Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) is announcing insurance for solar development projects today. Are you bored yet? Insurance always puts me to sleep, but the solar industry has left a lot more investors crying into their pillows than nodding off into gentle slumber. That’s what happens when a sector, on average, falls 73% in a year, as the Guggenhiem Solar ETF (NYSE:TAN) has. And many investors in individual solar stocks are weeping harder, from even larger percentage losses. But that does not mean that the solar industry does not have a bright future, and...
What I Sold: Carmanah Technologies (CMHXF, CMH.TO)
On Monday, I told readers that I was getting out of companies some which I feel are likely to need to raise new money over the next couple years. I also provided a list of stocks I will be buying when I judge we're near the bottom. This is the first in a series of short articles about those stocks. Carmanah Technologies (CMHXF) I've mentioned Carmanah Technologies (CMHXF) in passing in articles about LED companies. I first became interested in Carmanah in 2005. The company's integrated LED-solar lighting solutions caught my attention because they were (and are) economic regardless...
EU Moderates Tone in Solar Trade Clash with China
Doug Young After more than a year of antagonism, I’m happy to see that the voice of reason finally seems to be coming to the ongoing clash between China and the west in their prolonged dispute over Beijing’s state support for solar panel sector. Germany seems to be the driving force behind this welcome change in tone, following German Chancellor Angela Merckel’s remarks last week that she opposed anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese solar cells being proposed by the EU’s trade office. Merkel correctly realized that a trade war over solar panels wouldn’t benefit anyone, and could potentially deal...
Tesla’s Buffalo Solar Tiles: As Hot As They Seem?
by Paula Mints
In August, Tesla (TSLA) announced that production of its roof tiles at its not-yet-a giga-factory in Buffalo New York would be delayed until late in 2017. Wait ... it is late in 2017. Tesla indicated that production on the tiles was continuing at its 25-MWp pilot scale facility in Fremont, California. The Fremont facility was the former home of the dearly departed Silevo. On August 31 Tesla announced that it was now manufacturing solar cells at its facility in Buffalo and indicated it would have 2-GWp of cell capacity eventually. During Tesla’s earnings call Mr. Musk showed pictures...
Staying Alive: Could Thin-film Manufacturers Come Out Ahead in the PV Wars? Part 2
Jennifer Runyon In part one of this article, we talked with a-Si equipment manufacturer, Oerlikon Solar, which was recently purchased by Tokyo Electric. Here in part two, we talk with two heavy-hitters in the thin-film solar industry to hear their thoughts about the future of thin-film PV and the future of their technologies. First Solar (FSLR)– Maker of Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) Thin-film; Developer of Utility-Scale Projects First Solar (FSLR) has robust plans for the future, according to David Erhart, Marketing Communications Manager at the company. Erhart explained that it is First Solar’s “thin-film technology that takes a simple...
PV Micro Inverters and Optimizers: Not Just for Lazy Designers
by Joseph McCabe, PE More and more solar electric installations are using AC micro inverters and DC to DC optimizer electrical balance of systems (BOS) components. This BOS gear goes directly on the back sides of PV modules providing higher valued electricity than output from the PV cells alone. Two years ago I considered micro inverters as only necessary for lazy designs or bad installation practices. I’ve changed my attitude towards these approaches after organizing two years of forums as the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) Solar Electric Division Chairperson. These forums brought together experts who compared...
After Solyndra and Evergreen, Welcome to the Age of Solar PV Commoditization (And 5...
by Tor Valenza a.k.a. “Solar Fred” It’s official. With the bankruptcies of Solyndra and Evergreen, two solar panel companies with unique premium solar PV technologies, the Market with a capital M hath spoken: “Solar PV manufacturers, we, the purchasers of solar PV, do hereby care more about price than any fancy innovation. Just give us the best quality panel for the lowest $/watt, thank you very much.” String ribbon doesn’t matter. Cylindrical CIGS film doesn’t matter. Even made in America doesn’t matter unless it's at a competitive price. Apparently, all the Market wants to know are the...
SolarEdge looks to Raise $125 Million in IPO
By Tim Conneally From a huge crop of Israeli cleantech companies, solar power optimization and management startup SolarEdge has filed for a $125 million initial public offering on the NASDAQ exchange. SolarEdge has been talking about IPO since 2011, but opted instead to work with venture capital through three separate funding rounds. By the time it completed its Series D, SolarEdge had raised a total of $37 million from more than ten venture capital groups. The company's CFO recently told Bloomberg that it was difficult to grow such a large company with only private money. An IPO was...
The Hypocrisy of Solar Energy’s Critics
Garvin Jabusch The fossil fuel apologists in the U.S. are of course relentless in their criticism of the solar energy industry. Now with the JinkoSolar (JKS) fluoride spill, though, their hypocrisy is on full display. Earlier this month, they started talking about how Solyndra's failure means the whole solar concept is flawed (it's not), and how solar doesn't work (it does) and how it's not competitive (it is). Now, JinkoSolar, having spilled fluoride into a river in Haining province, China, is the new whipping boy. The issue though...
SMA Solar Delays Microinverter Launch
Ed Gunther SMA Sunny Boy 240 microinverter delayed again until 1Q13. From Solar Light Flashes: SPI12 Edition As I tweeted at the start of the Solar Power International 2012 (SPI12) exhibition, SMA America, LLC, a unit of SMA Solar Technology AG (ETR:S92), delayed the introduction of the Sunny Boy 240-US microinverter system until the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13) despite the webpage continuing to claim “Coming 2012!” The Sunny Boy 240 is in the midst of US field trials that SMA said are going well. While SMA said...
