Solar Installer
October 29, 2012
Red Tape in US Solar Industry The US Solar Industry has been hogging the news due to the solar panel trade battle with China where Anti […]
October 8, 2012
Solar Stocks have performed terribly in the past couple of years and have been a very painful experience for long term solar investors. The bad performance […]
June 21, 2012
Updated: 7/06/2016 Japanese Solar Panel companies Sharp, Kyocera, Panasonic-Sanyo, Mitsubishi were the top solar panel producers in the world. Solar Energy in Japan has a long […]
June 20, 2012
Note the market for water heaters in India is around $200 million annually and solar water heaters have managed to capture more than 30% of the market showing that solar water heaters are now a part of the mainstream. Note many solar products are starting to become more mainstream as their price competitiveness increases every year. Solar Panels which are the most widely used solar product has seen the price come down by almost 80% in the last few years .
February 25, 2012
India's Solar PowerIndustry is starting to see some M&A with both domestic and foreign companies buying smaller firms. While the biggest M&A story is that of Tata Power acquiring the stake in Tata BP Solar, other firms without any grounding in the energy industry are too getting in. Now a Coal Equipment and EPC company Tecpro is getting into the solar energy business by acquiring a small solar lighting and heating company Eversun.Tecpro Systemsis primarily focused on the Power Sector Space.It is a leader in the ash handling and material handling systems and is currently diversifying into becoming a turnkey provider in this segment.Like other infrastructure players it has seen amazing growth in the last 3 years at around 70%+.The growth has been fantastic both on the topline and the bottomline.The 2300 crore Order book provides some comfort over the next year’s revenues or so.The Power Sector in India particularly the Thermal Power Plants are expected to see an explosive growth period.Steel and Cement sectors are also growing strongly.With Tecpro Systems focusing on these 3 segments,it should be able to maintain a good growth trajectory in the future years as well
February 25, 2012
The Indian Solar Power Industry is starting to see some Solar M&A activity pick up as the sector starts maturing. The Indian Solar Energy Industry starting picking up pace in 2009 with the advent of the first phase of the solar federal subsidy which envisaged putting up 20 GW by 2022 (a figure which I think is too low btw) . A large number of companies entered the fray many of which were small . These companies hoped to profit from selling the licenses rather than being serious players. Many of these companies could not do so as the reverse auction process was quite competitive. A large number of companies also got started to take advantage of individual state subsidies from governments in Gujarat.
February 14, 2012
Solarcity which is the largest US Solar Installer has got sued by Sunpower for stealing trade secrets. Note Sunpower which was recently bought by French Oil Giant Total is facing tough times. Sunpower which makes the most efficient solar panels in the world is facing tough competition from super cheap Chinese solar panels. In fact according to Total CEO the company would have been already bankrupt with Total support. Beside making solar panels, Sunpower is also one of the biggest solar integrators and developers. The company has been in the business of installing solar panels after it acquired solar system installer Powerlight.
February 14, 2012
The US Import Sanctions on Chinese Solar Panel imports will become a non-event soon as Chinese solar panel producers are easily short circuting the sanctions. They are using a number of strategies to protect themselves from the upcoming duties and anti-dumping measures. This shows that globalization makes the use of specific duties on a nation quite useless and only benefits the lawyers . The reason is that private companies are much more faster and nimble compared to the slow moving bureaucrats .
January 19, 2012
There is urgent need to reduce the solar capacity addition in Germany because
a) It is requiring almost half of the $21 billion renewable energy subsidies in 2011 while generating 3% of the total power
b) Too much solar power while put pressure on the power grid as at the peak afternoon hours solar can generate almost 10% of Germany's power requirement which means shutting down other sources
c) German Solar Panel producers have stopped benefiting from German domestic growth. Most solar companies in Germany have been decimated by Chinese competition and around 20000 solar jobs and 5000 companies have shut down.
January 18, 2012
Solar Insolvency Protection is a new financial product that is going to be introduced by Munich Re the giant German reinsurer. Note Munich Re has been at the forefront of introducing insurance products for solar energy. It was one of the first companies to provide an insurance against the 25 year solar warranty which is generally given by solar companies for their solar modules.It has introduced it for LDK Solar Panels before moving onto other companies as well.
January 14, 2012
How Chinese Module Makers will use the Taiwanese Cell Producers to Circumvent US Anti-Dumping Policy
The USA and China are locked in a bitter tiff over solar panel imports from China. Note Solarworld filed a petition with the ITC which in all probability will put an anti-dumping duty on Chinese solar modules. Other countries whose solar panel producers have been swamped by the super cheap Solar Panel imports too are thinking of special custom duties. However the big Tier 1 Chinese solar panel makers are not sitting idle . They have already come out with strategies to circumvent the US Solar Panel Duties if they are imposed .
January 9, 2012
Solar Trade Wars are becoming the norm in the globe these days with the major one between USA and China.The instigator is the German solar company Solarworld which helped started the ITC Case in the USA.India too is thinking of putting some kind of import duty to protect its domestic solar panel producers which are dropping like flies.Chinese solar panel producers have swamped the world with super cheap solar modules.Though a part of their low prices can be explained by competitive advantage, another part is due to the labor,capital subsidy given by the Chinese government.It would not take a rocket scientist to say that some of the biggest Chinese solar companies are insolvent and would be dead within a month without Chinese state loans.
January 9, 2012
Saving bankrupt solar companies has become the national pasttime of most governments it seems.Competition in the solar market has become so severe that solar comapnies are failing left and right.This has made the government come out to save them with bailouts which only make the oversupply situation in the solar panel industry worse.While China is the worst culprit supporting hundreds of failing solar companies through cheap loans which will be never paid back,other governments are not far behind.
January 9, 2012
Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) Prices in New Jersey have been falling at a sharp rate from a high of $600 to $225 as high returns from falling solar panel prices and other tax breaks.This has led to a massive growth in solar installations in the state making it the 2nd largest state by solar capacity.New Jersey installations have crossed 500 MW and made it a huge green job driver in the state.However this boom has made the market driven SREC prices fall quite sharply.Though not falling as sharply as Pennsylvania where SREC prices have become a joke ,they are still low and falling.
January 6, 2012
US Solar Projects including the 1000 MW Blythe Solar Project is now available for solar developers,installers at fire sale prices.The Insolvency Administrator is looking to sell parts and the whole of the solar project business of Solar Millennium and its US subsidiary Solar Trust of America.Note before filing of bankruptcy,the solar project developer had around 2000 MW of solar projects in the pipeline.
January 6, 2012
LDK Solar is one of the most insolvent companies in the world right now with billions of dollars in debt,a battered balance sheet,continuing losses and dodgy accounting.However LDK has acquired a German company Sunways and continues to build new solar power plants as the Chinese state owned banks continue to fund it with cheap money without any consideration about losing their investments.LDK has become the poster boy of the Solarworld complaint against Chinese solar panel producers as it continues to run and thrive despite being insolvent.The Chinese government is hurting itself and its other solar companies like Trina,Yingle which are more competitive by continuing to support and increase the global glut of cheap solar panels.These solar panels are being clearly sold at below cost as most of the companies would be bankrupt without these absurd loans which make no free market sense
January 2, 2012
The Chinese solar panel producers too are facing tough times with many companies running at low utilizations and almost everybody running losses.Some companies with huge debt burdens like LDK are running because of government largesse as they are effectively insolvent for all purposes.Expect more bankrutpcies in the coming year .It will take a very foolish or a very brave company to expand solar capacity this year.
Only USA Solar Installers are having a good time with below cost solar panels availabe increasing the returns and leading to massive increased.It looks like 2012 will be a good year for US solar installers who are expanding rapidly to take advantage of the falling solar module prices.Even Buffett is going all into solar development space acquiring billion dollar project in a classical case of vulture investing.
August 16, 2011
Sharp is the largest solar company in the world by revenues and has been so for the last few years despite massively increasing competition from Chinese Solar Panel Producers.While other Japanese conglomerates like Sanyo,Mitsubishi and Kyocera have substantially lost solar panel marketshare ,Sharp has managed to retain its leadership position.Though companies like First Solar and Suntech have shipped more solar modules than Sharp,in terms of total dollar sales Sharp is still on top.Sharp which used to make polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon solar panels has diversified into producing thin film amorphous silicon solar panels.The company has also entered the solar IPP and solar development business in collaboration with Enel Green Power and by acquiring a US Solar Developer Recurrent Energy.However in core solar panel production,Sharp has much higher costs and has lost money consistently.Sharp sells Solar Systems and Solar Inverters as well as Solar Modules.However the challenges in the solar market are considerable with well funded low cost competitors from China and South Korea.Sharp faces the toughest years of its solar history as it fights to survive in this cut throat Solar Market
July 22, 2011
CEEG or China Electric Equipment Group Corporation is based in Nanjing, China and is a China state owned company.Chinese Solar Panels have captured more than 50% of the global market for crystalline solar panels and the biggest solar panel producers are from China.CEEG is one of the top 15 Chinese solar module manfacturers and sells solar panels under the CEEG Brand.Like its name implies the CEEG Group has a major presnse in the electrical equipment market and 3 of its 4 divisions operate in this segment.The company is also listed on the NASDAQ under the CSUN symbol alongwith a host of other Chinese panel producers like Trina,Yingli,Suntech,Canadian Solar and others.CEEG’s power transformers and PV products have been qualified for CCC, UL and EU certifications.It recently lanuched the Quasar range of high efficiency solar panels.In 2004, CEEG got engaged in the PV industry and established China Sunergy (formerly CEEG Nanjing PV-Tech Co., Ltd).CEEG has 4 solar panel production factories and 600 MW of production capacity.CEEG was originally a solar cell producer and seller before getting into the manufacture of solar panels in 2009 though acquistions of 2 small solar module producers.
July 15, 2011
Phono Solar is a JV between Phono Technologies Switzerland and Sumec Group of China.Phono’s parent company SUMEC Group has been in the PV industry from early 2004. Sumec and Sinomach family of companies claim to have $15 billion in revenues each year.SUMEC Group Corporation (SUMEC), founded in 1978, is a key member of China National Machinery Industry Corporation (SINOMACH).SUMEC’s core business consists of shipbuilding and project contracting of complete equipment and engineering; the R&D, manufacturing and export of machinery and electric products including power tools, garden tools, power machinery
Phono Solar’s three production facilities will produce more than 500MW of PV Modules in 2011.The products are widely used in many fields such as power station, telecom, transportation, lightening, broadcasting, civil defense, marine etc.The company's products are made in China and marketed by the Swiss company under the Phono Solar Brand.The Company also sells micro wind turbines which are used in small residential installations.
July 8, 2011
Sunlink Solar Panels are manufactured by a small company Jiangsu Sunlink PV Technology Co,.Ltd based out of China with module production capacity of 200MW.Note there are many Chinese companies of this size and a major shakeout is occuring in the industry with a number of smaller companies shutting down their production solar panel lines as prices have gone down by 40% amidst a solar module inventory glut.Some US based solar panel producers like Evergreen and Solyndra have gone out of business and many others are on the verge like Arisa Technologies.SunLink PVwas founded in 2004 and they sell 5W to 300W both monocrystalline and polycrystalline panels.They have IEC61215 Ed.2, IEC61730, UL1703 certificates.
July 8, 2011
Renewable Energy Corporation (REC ) is one of the biggest European solar companies and is completely vertically integrated.What that means is that REC makes all the components in the crystalline silicon supply chain from polysilicon to wafers to cells and modules.REC was earlier primarily a polysilicon and wafer producer but it is not becoming more active in the solar panels area.REC Silicon and REC Wafer are among the world's largest producers of polysilicon and wafers, respectively, for solar applications.This is the reason that REC solar panels are in general cheaper than other European and Japanese solar panels like Solarworld,Sharp,Kyocera and others.Due to the high cost of production,REC has shut down its factories in Norway and is mainly producing solar cells and solar modules at its new solar complex in Singapore.REC Solar has production facilities around the globe but it is concentrating its production in Asian factories.Despite stiff competition from Chinese solar panels which has led to bankruptcy of numerous solar companies in the West,REC is well capitalized and should be one of the survivors of the current solar price wars.As such the warranty on the solar panels from REC should hold good for the 25 years.
July 8, 2011
JA Solar is the biggest solar cell producer in the world with more than 2000 MW of silicon cell capacity.The company has one of the lowest costs in processing of solar cells from solar wafers.The company is primarily a supplier of solar cells to most solar panel producers in Europe and Asia.However the sharp fall in solar panel prices in 2011 has resulted in most of the European companies shutting shop which has meant that JA Solar has faced a large loss in customer orders for its solar cells.Unlike its peer Trina and Yingli Solar,JA Solar does not have a good brand name or distribution of solar panels.It is more of a upstream supplier of solar products to solar comapnies rather than a end distributor of solar panels.JA Solar has diversified into making solar panels of its own and in partnership with other companies.Having a strong presence in the end market has become essential to survive in the cutthroad solar market.
July 7, 2011
Solar Panels have recently become a point of trade friction between USA and China as a massive oversupply of solar panels has resulted in the prices of solar panels dropping by almost 50% in one year.This has caused great distress amongst solar panel manufacturers in the USA particularly the high cost ones which have been forced to close.Falling prices of solar panels are great news for customers but bad news for the producers of these solar panels.Now US and European companies are selling their solar panels advertising their "made in USA" credentials.This is to help them sell the solar panels which cost more but according to them have better quality and appeal to the patriotism of the Americans.Note the 2009 Economic Stimulus which promoted renewable energy had in fact "Buy American" provisions as well as the defense law passed in 2011.This means that a small part of the solar market is reserved for US Solar Panel Manufacturers who are being besieged by the low cost Chinese solar panel producers around the world.In fact Photovoltaic Module player Solarworld (which is German) is spearheading an effort to pass anti-dumping duties against the import of Chinese based panels.So which companies have "Made in USA" label.The surprising thing is that many of the solar companies are in fact foreign mostly European and Japanese though there are a native US companies as well.Note the most successful US Solar Companies First Solar and Sunpower (now Total) have always had the majority of their production outside the US in Asia.
July 7, 2011
Solara Solar Panels are manufactured by German Solar Company Centrosolar which sells PV Systems and Solar Panels under the Solara Brand Name.Centrosolar is one of the biggest solar installers and EPC companies in Europe.The company sells both polycrystalline and monocrystalline solar modules since 2006.Solara Solar Panels are sold in a number of countries with distributors like ARRID Power,12V shop selling it in Australia and Barden,Bright Green Energy selling the panels in UK.Solar Solar Panels are Semi Flexibile Marine Solar Modules which are specifically manufactured for use on boats, life rafts, caravans. electric cars and many other mobile applications.
CentroSolar is a listed photovoltaic company on the DAX which makes mounting systems and solar panels. The company makes PV-systems, modules made of crystalline cells and thin film technology, building-integrated PV-installations, inverters, roof-mounted and roof-integrated mounting systems as well as low-iron solar glass with an anti-reflective coating.CENTROSOLAR has its own PV-module production facility in Wismar (Germany) and a solar glass production site in Furth (Germany)
July 7, 2011
Photovoltaic Module demand has increased by more than 50% each year in the last decade as solar panel costs have gone down sharply by almost 80% in the last 4 years alone as scale and technology have improved.Photovoltaic Modules are a combination of solar cells which generate electricity when light strikes them.Photovoltaic is the name given to this process where electrons are released when photo or light transfer its energy to the solar cells.The following article covers a large amount of literature on Photovoltaic Modules from its costs to selling prices as well as the efficiency of the Photovoltaic Module which affects the Energy Output.There are hundreds of Photovoltaic Module Manufacturers but only a few major ones.There are reviews on the major Photovoltaic Module Suppliers and Market as well.
July 6, 2011
A solar array can be defined as solar panels arranged in a group to capture maximum amount of sun light to convert it into usable electricity. The idea of Solar Array came into being when it was conceived that the power produced by a solar panels singly was not sufficient for domestic or commercial purpose. Many such solar modules are linked together to form a Solar Array. Solar panels can be arranged differently to form different patterns to suit ones purpose. Depending upon what the need is, different structures can be build. Generally there are two traditional styles of solar energy panels used in residential and industrial areas -photovoltaic and photothermal energy. Most solar arrays to date have been a mixture of these two. Because it is relatively low-tech, solar arrays are a very cost effective approach for people who believe in DIY technology.
July 6, 2011
Solar Frontier is a Japanese company which was earlier known as Showa Shell Solar .The company joined the rank of major solar companies once it started the new 900MW “Kunitomi” production plant in Miyazaki.Note only is the company started big in production,it is rapidly signing deals around the globe in India,Middle East and America..The Company has recently signed Two Deals with 2 Global Heavyweights GE and IBM.It has signed a distribution deal with GE to sells its Copper Indium Selenide (CIS) Panels in USA while GE would provides the Balance of Systems components like inverters etc.It next signed a deal with IBM to jointly develop Copper Zinc Tin Sulfure Selenium (CZTS) Thin Film Technology.Note IBM is one of the biggest Technology Innovators and Solar Frontier has a long Thin Film History.
July 6, 2011
Types of Solar Panels Explained (Amorphous,Polycrystalline,Monocrystalline with Efficiency) for Home
Types of Solar Panels have increased manifold with the surging global solar demand fueled by falling prices of solar panels/modules.Note Solar Panels prices would have fallen by around 75% in 3 years which is a record for any energy let alone solar energy.This has made Solar Electricity on par with Electricity prices in a number of places globally.The number of manufacturers of solar panels too has increased drastically particuarly in China and Asia.The range of technologies being used to made solar panels has also increased in tandem.However polyscrystalline silicon solar panels continues to be the king of solar panels accounting for a lion's share of solar panels produced globally (around 75% according to my estimates).Each Solar Panel Technology differs from others in terms of efficiency and price.They also differ in their electricity production capabilities depending on temperature.They also differ in weight and flexibility.The Sizes of Solar Panels are also quite different and different powered solar panels are required for different applications.For a small power need like charging a mobile phone only a 5-20 watt solar panel would do while for powering a solar house you would need a number of 200-300 watt solar panels.
July 6, 2011
The ET Solar Group was founded in 2007.The company is relatively small compared to the biggest solar panel producers like Yingli,Suntech as its capacity is one/fifth the size of these big panel producers.It is more comparable to small Chinese solar companies like CEEG Solar,Eging and Sunlink..ET Solar is a quasi vertically integrated solar equipment manufacturer with presence in Europe, North America and Australia. ET Solar iis not fully integrated like LDK,Yinglie which makes polysilicon as well.However it does make silicon ingot, wafer, cell, module and a variety of BoS component products. ET Solar offers high-quality modules, inverter, tracker, BIPV, PV Kit and other solar products in more than 50 countries and regions in the whole world. Worldwide more than 500MW projects are already finished.The company is not publicly listed but is funded from Private Equity Sources.In these tough conditions it is questionable whether ET Solar can survive as it is not a Tier 1 producer.ET Solar has a good presence in the UK and Australian Markets.However Australian Solar Power Industry has seen a number of solar panel producers entering the industry and there are good alternatives available from Trina and Suntech