Solar

James Montgomery Sun emerging behind saguaro by Tom Konrad Scanning the new crop of reports from IHS, NPD Solarbuzz, and Navigant, here are a few key themes that emerge: Demand Is Shifting to Asia. Global solar PV demand reached 9 GW in 3Q13, up 6 percent from the prior quarter and nearly 20 percent from a year ago, according to Solarbuzz. China's share of that 3Q demand exceeded 25 percent, compared to 10 percent just two years ago. Meanwhile, the National Energy Administration reportedly has increased its 2014 targets for...

by Garvin Jabusch A couple days ago Bloomberg reported the following: "Saudi Arabia plans to generate solar electricity equaling the amount of its energy from crude exports, Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said." Wait, what? That sounds like a ridiculous quantity of solar electricity. The article doesn't say quantitatively how much energy that is, so I did a quick check. Saudi Arabia exports about 2.7 billion barrels of oil per year, each containing the equivalent of 1,700 Kilowatt hours of electricity for a total of 4.59 × 1012 KwH per year, or the equal of about one quarter or the...

Steve Sollheiser KWT Breaks Support There is very interesting price-action in the Market Vectors Solar Energy ETF (KWT) in the last trading day. We can see that price has closed below the support level of $3.40 which is a bearish signal. We can also see that the breakout price was touching an ascending resistance line twice - which creates this a Descending Broadening chart pattern. We would expect price to continue downwards with target at approximately $2.00. If price opens above the level it will be a sign that the support...

Solarworld AG (SWV.DE) will buy businesses from Shell to take over as the top maker of solar power equipment in the United States. The news prompted a leap in Solarworld shares, already buoyed by President Bush's pledge to promote new technology to make the United States less dependent on imported oil. The agreement covered Shell factories in Germany and the U.S. and sales operations in Germany, Singapore and South Africa. The price of the deal was not released and is still waiting for regulatory approval.

Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (STP) announced an exclusive contract to supply a 130KW solar energy system for Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium, the main stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The world-class solar energy system will be installed at 12 entrances of the Bird's Nest Stadium.

by David K. Burton In early 2013, many in the solar industry appeared to be thinking that the IRS’s blessing of a solar REIT would be provided within weeks. It is now the middle of 2013, and it appears the thinking from a few months ago was at best irrational exuberance. Three events have triggered a change in perspective on solar REITs. First, Hannon Armstrong’s (NYSE:HASI) private letter ruling request as to its REIT status is now public. Prior to the ruling being made public, the industry scuttlebutt was that the ruling would bless rooftop solar as REIT...

Mark Henwood This sector defines investment risk.   Not only has Evergreen Solar, Inc.   filed for bankruptcy, investors in another high visibility solar developer have been saddled with a 72% loss over the last week.   In a massive shift that has to shake confidence in the company, Germany’s Solar Millennium AG announced on Thursday said it will convert the first 500 megawatts of its 1,000 MW Blythe solar power plant in the Mojave desert to PV. It will decide what technology to use for the second half of the project at a later date.  Nor has it...

Scientists from Toin University of Yokohama in Japan have designed a single, compact device that can both convert solar energy to electricity and store the electricity. "We succeeded in incorporating both photovoltaic and storage functions in a single cell with a thin, sandwich-type structure," said Tsutomu Miyasaka, a researcher at the University. The researchers' photocapacitor is also efficient at capturing energy from weak light sources like sunlight on cloudy or rainy days and indoor lighting.

Spire Corp (SPIR) announced that it has completed installation and commissioning of a SPI-Line(TM) turnkey photovoltaic (PV) module assembly line for Unison Co., Ltd. (Unison) of Chonan-City, Korea. Spire's advanced PV module manufacturing equipment and process technology will enable Unison to manufacture state-of-the-art PV modules from solar cells to address the growing Korean and Asian solar PV market.

Privatly held Stirling Energy Systems is in the news today. This company takes the 19th century Stirling engine and pairs it with a solar collector to generate clean energy. "The Stirling engine makes solar power so much more efficiently than photovoltaic solar cells can," said Robert Liden, chief administrative officer at Stirling Energy Systems Inc. (Phoenix). "That's because the Stirling solar dish directly converts solar heat into mechanical energy, which turns an ac electrical generator." The bottom line, he said, "is that large farms of Stirling solar dishes ��? say, 20,000-dish farms ��? could deliver cheap solar electricity...

Worldwater Corp (WWAT) announced the signing of contracts with homeowners in New Jersey and California to build photovoltaic solar electric systems to power their residences in parallel with their present electric utility company. The contract value of the systems in New Jersey and California is $160,540.

Spire Corp (SPIR) received a Nasdaq Staff Determination indicating that the Company is no longer in compliance with the $10,000,000 minimum stockholders' equity requirement for continued listing set forth in Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4450(a)(3), and that its common stock is, therefore, subject to delisting from the Nasdaq National Market. While this type of event is never a good thing, it certainly doesn't ring the death of this stock. They will just start trading OTC.

Tom Konrad What will the New Year hold for Clean Energy?   For the people who manage clean energy portfolios, mutual funds, and indexes the question is more than idle curiosity.  Getting the answer right means finding the stocks which will put a shine on your solar portfolio’s returns.  Getting it wrong means the competition will blow away your wind stocks. I asked my network of green money managers what they thought, and they gave me a lot more than I expected.  This is the start of a series on the predictions and stock picks from my...

Magnetek Inc. (MAG) announced that it has secured distribution agreements for its Aurora(TM) solar photovoltaic (PV) power inverters with channel partners in Italy and Spain valued at more than $3 million in sales during calendar 2006, subject to demand and availability. Italy and Spain each have adopted aggressive incentive programs aimed at installing up to 100-megawatts (MW) of new solar capacity, thus emerging as the fourth and fifth largest potential solar power markets in the world.

Here are some additional notes I took from the Solar Energy conference. I was meaning to post this one earlier, but life and time got away from me. This session dealt with the Growth of Solar. It was not one of the more interesting sessions, but some of the people on the roundtable were very interesting. The first person to speak was Edwin Hill, President of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. His major focus for the reason why he and the IBEW was attending the conference is to state that they want to be a partner...

Worldwater Corp (WWAT) announced the signing of a contract with the Eagle Academy of Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. The contract calls for WorldWater to provide engineering, materials and supervision to assist at-risk youths in building a solar powered water pump to supply drinking water and irrigation at a 14-acre arboretum preservation site in Egg Harbor Township. This project is being funded by a grant from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, which provides grants for solar energy projects in New Jersey.