Chinese Suntech eyes panel assembly site in Arizona
Chinese solar company Suntech Power Holdings is primed to become the first recipient of Arizona’s property tax reduction and tax credit incentives policies. With a 100,000 square-foot solar panel manufacturing facility in the works outside of Phoenix, it hopes to ramp up production by fall 2010.
Suntech says the plant will employ 75 people full time from the moment it opens its shipping bay doors. If north American demand for solar panels follows the trrack Suntech… Continue Reading
Solar panel demand finally catching up with supply
One of the biggest, most depressing stories in the solar industry has been the oversupply of panels, which drove down prices and discouraged investors for most of 2009. Now, new research out of trade research firm iSuppli, suggests that demand will catch up with supply by the end of next year — good news for the growing number of solar panel and component makers.
One of the forces deflating demand was a rollback of solar subsidies… Continue Reading
First Solar to build massive 2-GW plant in China
First Solar, the largest solar developer in the world, announced that it will be building the largest solar panel array in the world to date, at 2,000 megawatts, in the Mongolian desert. A massive undertaking, the facility isn’t expected to be finished until 2019. It will be part of the even larger 11,950-megawatt solar complex planned for the region (Ordos City, China) — enough to power 3 million homes.
The feat has been divided into four… Continue Reading
SoCal Edison signs to buy 500 MW from new First Solar plants
Southern California Edison, the major utility that was conspicuously absent from last week’s bevy of applicants for smart grid stimulus funds, has forged a partnership with First Solar to buy electricity from two new thin-film photovoltaic plants slated to produce 550 megawatts for 170,000 homes.
The deal, still awaiting approval from California energy regulators, already names sites for the two plants — one to produce 300 megawatts and the other 250 — in San Bernadino and… Continue Reading
Solar maker Q-Cells lays off 500, moves to restructure
Germany-based Q-Cells, the second largest maker of solar cells in the world, announced today that it is cutting its staff by a fifth — trimming 500 jobs from its 2,600 workforce. The company has been very frank about reducing costs in order to remain competitive in an increasingly heated market.
Prices for solar cells have dropped off in the last several months due to oversupply, causing companies like Q-Cells and its Chinese competitor JA Solar Holdings… Continue Reading
SunPower stock shines after earnings report bolsters solar
SunPower, acknowledged to be the second-largest solar module maker in the U.S., saw its stock price jump 28 percent today following its announcement of expectation-beating second quarter earnings. This success has not only fortified the company but is being cited by many analysts as evidence that solar will rebound and grow in the next year.
The increase in stock price sent a ripple through the solar global industry, pushing up share prices for companies like prime… Continue Reading
Roundup: Twitter’s ready for its close-up, Apple says yes to the Kama Sutra, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Twitter on the tube – More producers are turning to the micro-blogging service for television-based projects, and the site is only too happy to go Hollywood.
Auctions on the way down for eBay — The site is frantically trying to reinvent as its core business starts to decline in earnest. The Wall Street Journal has the details.
The Apple of North Carolina’s eye? — The state may be changing its tax policies to lure technology companies,… Continue Reading
Sempra and First Solar join forces for Nevada solar farm
Sempra Energy, the major utility and energy services company in Southern California, announced today that it has contracted First Solar to build a 48-megawatt array of solar panels in the Nevada desert, dubbed Copper Mountain. The facility is expected to start producing electricity within the year, reports the Wall Street Journal.
This is not the first time Sempra has worked with First Solar. It also tapped the Tempe, Ariz. company to construct its 10 megawatt solar… Continue Reading
eSolar nabs $30M licensing deal for Indian plants
eSolar has been focusing increasingly on building large-scale plants in the U.S., and shedding plans to do the same overseas. Just last week, it announced that it sold its rights to build 500 megawatts worth of solar-thermal plants to NRG Energy for $10 million in equity. Now it’s licensing its technology to Indian power company Acme Group, which will use it to build solar-thermal plants in India capable of producing 1,000 megawatts. In exchange, Acme… Continue Reading
Thin film hits the rooftop as First Solar buys into SolarCity
First Solar, the undisputed top dog in the thin-film solar industry, has made a move that could prove revolutionary for the solar market. It has invested in SolarCity, a residential and commercial solar installer in San Francisco.
SolarCity will receive $25 million from First Solar, part of a total $30 million investment that the company is announcing today. But more importantly, the company is getting a contract from First Solar for 100 megawatts worth of thin-film… Continue Reading
Another massive funding for thin film solar, with $104M to AVA Solar, a challenger to First Solar
It may not be as much as the colossal $300 million financing that Nanosolar finally disclosed yesterday — the biggest ever for a solar company — but another thin-film manufacturer, AVA Solar, has broken into the nine-figure funding range today, with a challenge to industry giant First Solar’s dominance.
AVA stands out a bit from its peers, for several reasons. For one, it’s based in Fort Collins, Colorado, well away from the sunny or technology-laden areas… Continue Reading
Specialized Technology Resources, a maker of solar equipment, files for $300M IPO
Specialized Technology Resources (STR) Holdings, an Enfield, Conn.-based manufacturer of solar cell encapsulants, has filed for an IPO that could be worth as much as $300 million in common stock. It plans to trade on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “PVS”; Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse will serve as its co-lead underwriters.
Founded in 1945, the company sells Photocap encapsulants, protective sheets for solar cells that are typically made of glass, to many of the… Continue Reading
HelioVolt hopes for a fast scale-up with high-efficiency CIGS process
updated, with correction
These are heady times for the thin-film solar industry. The sector’s dominant player, First Solar, has been on a tear of late, recently announcing it would build a second 10 megawatt power plant in Nevada, while Miasole, once thought to be ailing, has staged an impressive comeback, raking in an eye-popping $220 million. Nanosolar has developed a new ultra-fast solar cell printer, and even giants like IBM and Applied Materials have gotten in… Continue Reading
Duke Energy invests $100M in rooftop solar projects
Duke Energy — hardly your conventional renewable energy startup — has thrown its hat in the solar ring with a $100 million investment in commercial-scale rooftop solar panels.
The Charlotte, North Carolina, based electric utility will partner with commercial and residential property owners to tap into a growing market that has seen large investments in recent months from major utilities like Southern California Edison, which unveiled its own $875 million rooftop project in late March.
Like SCE,… Continue Reading
HelioVolt claims CIGS thin film efficiency record
HelioVolt CEO BJ Stanbery is set to announce that his company has set a new speed record for CIGS conversion efficiency, ratcheting up the pressure in the competitive, high-stakes thin-film solar cell sector. The Austin, Texas, start-up, which raked in a cool $101 million in second round funding last October, claims its proprietary FASST reactive transfer printing process can produce cells with a 12.2% conversion efficiency in a mere 6 minutes.
This latest technological breakthrough comes… Continue Reading
Nanosolar gets yet more funding for production — next up, an IPO?
Another day, another dollar, or $50 million of them. Nanosolar is now the most heavily-funded thin-film solar cell manufacturer outside the public market, with a new investment from a French company that wants it to churn out cells more quickly.
Nanosolar’s cells, which the company only started producing in December, are among the cheapest on the market, which is reason enough for it to continue attracting attention from investors like EDF Energies Nouvelles. The company’s CIGS… Continue Reading
Solar CIGS production to pick up — HelioVolt building plant in Austin
updated
A day after Silicon Valley solar cell company Nanosolar said it has begun manufacturing and sales of its solar cells, rival HelioVolt declared it too is building a solar cell production plant, in its hometown of Austin, Texas.
Both companies are competing to build cells from material called copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), which they hope will lower the cost of solar cells dramatically, compared to the dominant material today: expensive silicon.
The timing of the announcement… Continue Reading