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SFCE Aug 19
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Suntech and Adani Power Collaborate on 200 Megawatts of Solar in India
Aug 19, 2015 | PR Newswire
Suntech has announced today that it will further collaborate with Adani Power Ltd., one of India's largest private power producers, in developing solar energy in India. Suntech has agreed to supply approximately 200 MW of solar panels towards a project that will be developed, designed, built, and operated by Adani Power. -
Adani Power taps Suntech for 200MW PV order in southeastern India
Aug 19, 2015 | Recharge
By Brian Publicover
Suntech has agreed to supply 200MW of PV modules to developer Adani Power for a single project in southeastern India that it claims will be the world’s biggest solar installation upon completion next year. The project, which is now in the early stages of development in the state of Tamil Nadu, is set for completion at some point in 2016. -
Suntech agrees 200 MW Indian supply deal with Adani
Aug 19, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Ian Clover
Collaboration follows last month's 9.3 MW project, and will see the Chinese solar power company supply 200 MW of panels for a solar project in India's Tamil Nadu state. Suntech will supply its high efficiency Vem PV series panels to the 200 MW project. -
Suntech to supply 200MW of panels for Adani India project
Aug 19, 2015 | PV Tech
By Tom Kenning
Module manufacturer Wuxi Suntech has agreed to supply around 200MW of solar panels to Indian conglomerate Adani Power for a PV project, which is under development in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The project will use Suntech’s Vem PV series modules and is expected to generate around 330GWh of electricity to power the equivalent of 367,000 households. It is expected to be complete by 2016. -
Suntech to ship 200 MW of solar panels for Adani project in India
Aug 19, 2015 | SeeNews Renewables
By Ivan Shumkov
Chinese solar products maker Wuxi Suntech Power Co Ltd announced today it will supply about 200 MW of solar panels for a single project developed by Adani Power Ltd (BOM:533096) in India’s Tamil Nadu state. -
Suntech, Adani Power team for the largest individual solar project in the world
Aug 19, 2015 | Greentech Lead
By Rajani Baburajan
Suntech, a Chinese manufacturer of solar panels and technologies, has formed partnership with India’s Adani Power, to build a solar project in Tamil Nadu in South India. Under this partnership, Suntech has agreed to supply approximately 200 MW of solar panels towards a project that will be developed, designed, built, and operated by Adani Power. -
Gujarat solar power policy aims for 10GW by 2020
Aug 19, 2015 | PV Tech
By Tom Kenning
...PV developers will be responsible for obtaining the land to develop their projects. PV manufacturer Wuxi Suntech, a subsidiary of Shunfeng International Clean Energy (SFCE), recently supplied 9.3MW of modules to a 13GWh Adani Power PV plant in Gujarat... -
China's PV manufacturing output surpasses $31bn in first half of year
Aug 19, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Ian Clover
Country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) confirms January-June period generated 200 billion yuan of output value in the solar PV sector, outstripping 2014's performance. Total output value for China's solar PV manufacturing industry was $31bn for the first six months of the year. -
Scottish ‘love affair’ with renewables facing uncertain times
Aug 19, 2015 | Recharge
By Christopher Hopson
Scotland’s “love affair” with home-grown renewables is facing uncertainty due to UK government cuts that are already punishing the sector, warns industry body Scottish Renewables. Fresh data shows that 42,000 solar schemes, 2,557 wind projects, 204 hydroelectric schemes and three anaerobic ... -
California pro-solar protestors march in defence of net metering and ITC
Aug 19, 2015 | PV Tech
By Andy Colthorpe
Hundreds of pro-solar protestors and representatives from industry and advocacy groups marched on California’s state capital yesterday, intent on defending net metering policies and lobbying for extension of the investment tax credit (ITC). California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA) and The Alliance for Solar Choice... -
World Needs 53GW Of Solar PV Installed Per Year To Address Climate Change
Aug 19, 2015 | Clean Technica
By Sophie Vorrath
A new report has suggested the world will need to install solar PV at an average rate of 53GW a year from 2013-2020 as it transforms its energy mix to prevent dangerous climate change. As reported here, global investment bank Citigroup has become the latest authoritative source to warn of the high... -
EU debate on green energy targets pitches UK against Germany
Aug 19, 2015 | Reuters (in Business Insider)
By Barbara Lewis
Britain and Germany will line up on opposite sides of a European Union green energy debate starting next month on how to meet agreed renewable fuel targets for the next decade. The 28 member states agreed climate and energy goals last October, but to make it easier to get a deal, the decision went only as far as a framework. -
Yingli Green receives official NYSE de-listing notice
Aug 19, 2015 | PV Tech
By Mark Osborne
Major tier-one PV manufacturer Yingli Green Energy has said it received an official notice from the NYSE on 13 August 2015 that it was not in compliance with the minimum US$1.0 share price threshold. PV Tech had exclusively revealed yesterday that Yingli Green was at threat of receiving the de-listing notice after trading below the threshold for 30 ... -
SolarCity Has a New Plan to Make Distributed Energy an Integral Part of the Grid
Aug 18, 2015 | Greentech Media
By Jeff St. John
SolarCity has an idea for how to help California utilities tap their own customers as an integral part of their billion-dollar distribution grid plans: put them first in line. The plan is called a “distribution loading order” -- a variation of the state’s longstanding loading order that puts ... -
What Made Chinese Mayors Step Up Pollution Fight?
Aug 18, 2015 | The Diplomat
By Liu Qin
In China, “APEC blue” was the sarcastic term used to refer to the unusually clear skies Beijing enjoyed when an Asia-Pacific leaders summit was in progress late last year. A similar phenomenon is now being seen in smaller Chinese cities, as mayors are summoned to the Ministry of ... -
Saudi Investors Join $70 Million VC Round For Solexel's Thin Silicon Solar Technology
Aug 18, 2015 | The Energy Collective
By Eric Wesoff
...Last week, Shunfeng acquired a majority state in advanced silicon solar cell builder Suniva. SolarCity acquired advanced silicon manufacturer Silevo last year. TetraSun was acquired by Firsr Solar in 2013. Solexel CFO Mark Kerstens suggested that most high-efficiency solar panel production is already spoken...
Press Release - Suntech and Adani Power Collaborate on 200 Megawatts of Solar in India
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Suntech and Adani Power Collaborate on 200 Megawatts of Solar in India
Aug 19, 2015 | PR Newswire
Suntech has announced today that it will further collaborate with Adani Power Ltd., one of India's largest private power producers, in developing solar energy in India. Suntech has agreed to supply approximately 200 MW of solar panels towards a project that will be developed, designed, built, and operated by Adani Power. The project, which is currently in pre-development in the Tamil Nadu state inSouthern India, is expected to be operational by 2016. This project will be the biggest, individual solar project across the globe.
"After recently completing a 9.3 MW project with Adani Power in Gujarat, India, we're excited to be continuing our partnership with Adani Power, who has proven to be an important and strong partner to have in developing the solar industry in the region and in India," said Haibo Xiong, president of Suntech. "We first hosted Adani Power at Suntech's manufacturing facility and testing lab in Wuxi this past April. They were impressed with the quality of Suntech's technology and panels, along with Suntech's esteemed value in R&D, which is aimed at upgrading its solar technology in order to ensure continual high performance yields and power outputs. We expect that this 200 MW project is the breaking point for Suntech's presence in India as we continue to collaborate with Adani Power."
The 200 MW project will employ Suntech's Vem PV series modules, which produce high-performance yields for utility-scale size power plant installations. The solar plant systems are expected to generate approximately 330 gigawatt-hours of electricity, which will power approximately 367,000 households and offset approximately 281,700 tons of carbon emissions annually.
"China has launched massive infrastructure investments in 'One Belt and One Road' countries. Clean energy infrastructure and solutions are definitely high priorities in China's investment strategy, which will provide developing countries with energy alternatives that weren't previously accessible," explains Eric Luo, CEO of Shunfeng International Clean Energy, Suntech's parent company. "The Indian government has provided positive incentive policies for solar development as it looks to accelerate its 2020 100 GW solar mission. We believe this landmark project will help showcase solar energy's capabilities in providing India with clean and sustainable energy. We are very pleased to be a part of the largest solar project in the world to date."
About Wuxi Suntech Power Co., Ltd.
Wuxi Suntech Power Co., Ltd., a company incorporated in the PRC in January 2001, produces industry-leading solar products for residential, commercial, industrial, and utility applications. Suntech is a Bloomberg New Energy Finance's tier 1 solar company, based on its bankability and has delivered more than 30 million photovoltaic panels or 9 GWs of installed capacity to more than 1 thousand customers in more than 80 countries. Suntech's pioneering R&D creates customer-centric innovations that are driving solar to grid parity against fossil fuels. Suntech's mission is to provide reliable access to nature's cleanest and most abundant energy source.About Adani Enterprises Ltd.
Adani Power Limited is the power business subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Adani Group with head office at Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The company is India's largest private power producer, with capacity of 10,440 MW and also it is the largest solar power producer in India. Adani Power Limited is ranked 334th in Fortune's 2011 India 500 list.PR Newswire (English): http://en.prnasia.com/story/archive/1472041_EN72041_0
PR Newswire (Chinese): http://www.prnasia.com/story/archive/1472041_ZH72041_1
RYT9 (Thai): http://www.m.ryt9.com/s/anpi/2232090
Finanzen.net (German): http://www.finanzen.net/nachricht/aktien/Suntech-und-Adani-Power-arbeiten-an-200-MW-Solaranlage-in-Indien-zusammen-4482396
Solar Server German: http://www.solarserver.de/solar-magazin/nachrichten/aktuelles/2015/kw34/photovoltaik-in-indien-suntech-und-adani-power-arbeiten-an-einem-kraftwerksprojekt-mit-200-mw.html
Arab News Express (English): http://arabnewsexpress.ae/suntech-and-adani-power-collaborate-on-200-megawatts-of-solar-in-india/
Emirates Newswire (Arabic): http://emiratesnewswire.ae/?p=40837
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Adani Power taps Suntech for 200MW PV order in southeastern India
Aug 19, 2015 | Recharge
By Brian Publicover
Suntech has agreed to supply 200MW of PV modules to developer Adani Power for a single project in southeastern India that it claims will be the world’s biggest solar installation upon completion next year.The project, which is now in the early stages of development in the state of Tamil Nadu, is set for completion at some point in 2016.
It is expected to generate roughly 330GWh of electricity per year, or enough to cater to the needs of roughly 367,000 homes.
Suntech president Victor Xiong told Recharge that the company expects to ship more than 1.8GW of solar panels throughout the world in 2015, adding that it aims to eventually claim a 15% share of India’s solar-panel market.
Its cumulative shipments outside of China currently stand at 8GW.
The order marks the Chinese manufacturer’s second collaboration with Ahmedabad-based Adani, following a recent deal to supply a 9.3MW project in the Indian state of Gujarat.
Xiong said Suntech will continue to work with Adani and described the 200MW order for its Vem PV modules as a “breaking point” for its presence in the country.
The company — which was acquired by Shunfeng International Clean Energy (SFCE) in early 2014 for $483m — has shipped more than 300MW of PV modules in India since it established a presence in the country in 2009, with orders from companies such as Tata Power, Azure Power and Lanco Solar.
Xiong told Recharge that Suntech is still considering locations for a new factory, following reports in June quoting SFCE chief executive Eric Luo as saying that the module manufacturer planned to expand its annual output by at least 1GW.
Suntech — the former production unit of fallen PV giant Suntech Power — has aggressively restructured its management team over the past year, Xiong said.
“Following the SFCE acquisition, Suntech has focused on reducing solar costs through scale-up economy, value chain development and technological innovation,” he said in an email.
“Suntech has the lowest debt ratio in the PV market, which means that it has the lowest financial costs in the industry, making it easier to invest in the growth of the business and expand our client portfolio.”
Link: http://www.rechargenews.com/solar/1408988/adani-power-taps-suntech-for-200mw-pv-order-in-southeastern-india
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Suntech agrees 200 MW Indian supply deal with Adani
Aug 19, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Ian Clover
Collaboration follows last month's 9.3 MW project, and will see the Chinese solar power company supply 200 MW of panels for a solar project in India's Tamil Nadu state.
Suntech will supply its high efficiency Vem PV series panels to the 200 MW project.
Chinese Tier-1 solar company Wuxi Suntech Power (Suntech) has confirmed it is to work once again with Indian clean energy producer Adani Power on the creation of a 200 MW solar PV plant in Tamil Nadu state in Southern India.
The two companies came together last month to finalize the creation of a 9.3 MW solar plant in Gujarat, India, and will now collaborate on this larger project, which will be one of the biggest in the region once complete in 2016.
Adani Power will develop, design, build and operate the solar farm using 200 MW of Suntech’s Vem PV series modules, which have been developed for installation at utility-scale solar plants.
"After recently completing a 9.3 MW project with Adana Power in Gujarat, we are excited to be continuing our partnership with Adani Power, who have proven important to developing the solar industry in India," said Suntech president Haibo Xiong. The president added that Suntech expects this 200 MW project to be a stepping stone into the Indian solar market, which is rapidly growing.
Eric Luo, the CEO of Suntech’s parent company Shunfeng International Clean Energy, further explained that Suntech’s strategy is aimed at ‘One Belt and One Road’ countries, whereby Chinese companies invest in clean energy infrastructure solutions in regions where such alternatives were not previously accessible.
"The Indian government has provided positive incentive policies for solar development as it looks to accelerate its 2020 100 GW solar mission," said Luo. "We believe this landmark project will help showcase solar energy’ capabilities in providing India with clean and sustainable energy."
PV Magazine (English): http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/suntech-agrees-200-mw-indian-supply-deal-with-adani_100020666/#axzz3jGPTr3Wp
PV Magazine (German): http://www.pv-magazine.de/nachrichten/details/beitrag/suntech-und-adani-bauen-200-megawatt-photovoltaik-anlage-in-indien_100020174/
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Suntech to supply 200MW of panels for Adani India project
Aug 19, 2015 | PV Tech
By Tom Kenning
Module manufacturer Wuxi Suntech has agreed to supply around 200MW of solar panels to Indian conglomerate Adani Power for a PV project, which is under development in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
The project will use Suntech’s Vem PV series modules and is expected to generate around 330GWh of electricity to power the equivalent of 367,000 households. It is expected to be complete by 2016.
Suntech and Adani also recently completed a 9.3MW project in the state of Gujarat.
Haibo Xiong, president of Suntech, said: “We first hosted Adani Power at Suntech's manufacturing facility and testing lab in Wuxi this past April.
“We expect that this 200 MW project is the breaking point for Suntech's presence in India as we continue to collaborate with Adani Power."
Eric Luo, chief executive of Shunfeng International Clean Energy, Suntech's parent company, said: "China has launched massive infrastructure investments in 'One Belt and One Road' countries. Clean energy infrastructure and solutions are definitely high priorities in China's investment strategy, which will provide developing countries with energy alternatives that weren't previously accessible.
“The Indian government has provided positive incentive policies for solar development as it looks to accelerate its 2020 100GW solar mission.”
India recently released a year-by-year breakdown of its 100GW target in rooftop and ground-mount.
Link: http://www.pv-tech.org/news/suntech_to_supply_200mw_of_panels_for_adani_india_project
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Suntech to ship 200 MW of solar panels for Adani project in India
Aug 19, 2015 | SeeNews Renewables
By Ivan Shumkov
Chinese solar products maker Wuxi Suntech Power Co Ltd announced today it will supply about 200 MW of solar panels for a single project developed by Adani Power Ltd (BOM:533096) in India’s Tamil Nadu state.
Suntech said in a statement that this will be “the biggest, individual solar project across the globe”. Under the terms of the deal, the company will deliver 200 MW of its Vem PV series modules for the scheme, which is in its pre-development stage. The plant, scheduled for completion by 2016, will be able to generate some 330 GWh of power per year.
The new deal follows the two parties’ collaboration on a 9.3-MW solar park in Gujarat that was completed recently. “We expect that this 200 MW project is the breaking point for Suntech's presence in India as we continue to collaborate with Adani Power," commented Haibo Xiong, president of Suntech.
The Chinese firm is owned by Shunfeng International Clean Energy Ltd (HKG:1165), previously known as previously known as Shunfeng Photovoltaic International. Adani Power, in turn, is the the electricity generation business of Indian conglomerate Adani Group.
Link: http://renewables.seenews.com/news/suntech-to-ship-200-mw-of-solar-panels-for-adani-project-in-india-489032
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Suntech, Adani Power team for the largest individual solar project in the world
Aug 19, 2015 | Greentech Lead
By Rajani Baburajan
Suntech, a Chinese manufacturer of solar panels and technologies, has formed partnership with India’s Adani Power, to build a solar project in Tamil Nadu in South India.
Under this partnership, Suntech has agreed to supply approximately 200 MW of solar panels towards a project that will be developed, designed, built, and operated by Adani Power.
The project is expected to be operational by 2016. This project will be the biggest, individual solar project across the globe, the company said in a statement.
The 200 MW project will employ Suntech’s Vem PV series modules, which produce high-performance yields for utility-scale size power plant installations.
The solar plant systems are expected to generate approximately 330 gigawatt-hours of electricity, which will power approximately 367,000 households and offset approximately 281,700 tons of carbon emissions annually.
“After recently completing a 9.3 MW project with Adani Power in Gujarat, India, we’re excited to be continuing our partnership withAdani Power, who has proven to be an important and strong partner to have in developing the solar industry in the region and in India,” said Haibo Xiong, president of Suntech.
The partnership follows a series of testing at Suntech’s manufacturing facility and testing lab in Wuxi in April.
“We expect that this 200 MW project is the breaking point for Suntech’s presence in India as we continue to collaborate with Adani Power,” Xiong added.
Eric Luo, CEO of Shunfeng International Clean Energy, Suntech’s parent company, commented, “The Indian government has provided positive incentive policies for solar development as it looks to accelerate its 2020 100 GW solar mission. We believe this landmark project will help showcase solar energy’s capabilities in providing India with clean and sustainable energy.”
Link: http://www.greentechlead.com/solar/suntech-adani-power-team-for-the-largest-individual-solar-project-in-the-world-27592
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Gujarat solar power policy aims for 10GW by 2020
Aug 19, 2015 | PV Tech
By Tom Kenning
he Indian state of Gujarat has released a new solar policy aiming to scale up solar power capacity in the state to 10GW by 2020, having jump-started utility-scale solar in 2009.
The ‘Gujarat Solar Power Policy-2015’, released by the Department of Energy and Petrochemicals, promises achieving this goal in a "sustainable manner", acknowledging that renewable energy is still “significantly more expensive” than conventional sources such as coal-based power generation and that the state is wary of adding too much burden on consumers. This is despite recent auctions in the states of Telangana and Madhya Pradesh seeing winning bids with record low prices for India.
Gujarat's new policy aims to facilitate and promote large-scale solar while taking into account the interests of all stakeholders.
The previous Gujarat solar policy from 2009 resulted in more than 1GW installed with investment of INR90 billion (US$1.4 billion). It also resulted in Asia’s largest solar park at Charanka in Patan District and India’s first megawatt-scale canal-top solar plant at Chandrasan in Mehsana District. Canal-top solar, which saves water, land and generates clean energy, now also forms a portion of India’s overall 100GW by 2022 solar target.
The new 2015 solar policy comes into effect immediately and will continue up to 31 March 2020.
Under the policy, the state will facilitate rooftop PV with net metering on government, residential, industrial and commercial buildings. This contrasts with India’s Ministry of New and renewable Energy, which recently announced that it would not subsidise commercial rooftop solar.
Distribution companies will be able to meet their Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) by purchasing solar power both at a power purchase rate determined through competitive bidding. Solar developers can also sell power to distribution companies under the Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) mechanism.
PV developers will be responsible for obtaining the land to develop their projects.
PV manufacturer Wuxi Suntech, a subsidiary of Shunfeng International Clean Energy (SFCE), recently supplied 9.3MW of modules to a 13GWh Adani Power PV plant in Gujarat.
MNRE also recently released guidelines for implementing India’s plans for 20GW of solar capacity from “Ultra Mega solar power projects” in 25 parks. Gujarat was one of several states in which land for solar parks has been identified.
Link: http://www.pv-tech.org/news/gujarat_solar_power_policy_aims_for_10gw_solar_in_sustainable_manner
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China's PV manufacturing output surpasses $31bn in first half of year
Aug 19, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Ian Clover
Country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) confirms January-June period generated 200 billion yuan of output value in the solar PV sector, outstripping 2014's performance.
Total output value for China's solar PV manufacturing industry was $31bn for the first six months of the year.
China’s total solar PV manufacturing output for the first six months of the year has surpassed $31 billion, the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) confirmed on Wednesday.
With China committed to halting the rise in its carbon emissions over the next 15 years, and with one eye on December’s UN climate talks in Paris, the Chinese government has committed to backing clean energy industries, with solar PV the obvious beneficiary.
The 200 billion yuan in total output value generated within the industry so far this year far outstrips the 150 billion yuan ($23.44 billion) generated over the same period in 2014, but not all sectors of the solar value chain have experienced a fillip in production output.
According to MIIT’s statement, China shipped $7.7 billion worth of modules, silicon wafers and batteries in the first six months of the year. In H1 2014, that figure was $8.2 billion.
Domestically, however, the deployment and production of solar components is up across the board – silicon wafer production reached 4.5 billion wafers, up slightly on 2014, while the 74,000 tonnes of crystalline silicon produced in the first six months of 2015 is a 15.6% increase on the same period in 2014.
Cumulative installed solar capacity added for the year up to June 30 reached 7.73 GW, which leaves China slightly off the pace it has set itself – the National Energy Administration (NEA) is targeting the installation of 17.8 GW of solar PV capacity this year.
The world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases, China has vowed to increase the share of clean energy in its total energy mix to 15% by 2020. Currently, that figure is around 11%, but the need for more renewable energy sources is apparent both ecologically and economically: leading industry groups believe China needs 200 GW of solar by 2020 in order to plug projected shortfalls of nuclear and hydropower.
Distributed generation
Currently, China’s overall cumulative installed solar PV capacity stands at a little over 33 GW. Growth in the country’s distributed generation (DG) segment has been slower than planned, which is stymieing efforts to hit the overall target.The NEA confirmed that only one quarter of its targeted DG capacity of 8 GW was reached in 2014, but Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) forecasts that DG projects may amount to between 5 and 7 GW this year.
The problem, analysts believe, is the difficulty many smaller solar developers and projects face in securing financing from Chinese banks, which are usually drawn to the economies of scale apparent on larger projects.
However, a new solar crowdfunding platform – Solarbao.com – could soon change all that, and has already made a promising start in China, backing 22,000 solar projects to the tune of $350 million pledged.
Solarbao.com is part-owned by solar company LDK Solar, and invites investors to back projects with a pledge as low as 1,000 yuan. This model, which has helped to liberalize solar markets in Europe and North America, is relatively alien to Chinese investors, but as internet, crowd-backed financing becomes more accepted, the potential to tap into the growing thirst for solar power among ordinary Chinese is vast.
According to Bloomberg, leading solar plant developer United Photovoltaics Group will begin using crowdfunding to help finance its own projects before 2015 is out.
Link: http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/chinas-pv-manufacturing-output-surpasses-31bn-in-first-half-of-year_100020664/#axzz3jGPTr3Wp
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Scottish ‘love affair’ with renewables facing uncertain times
Aug 19, 2015 | Recharge
By Christopher Hopson
Scotland’s “love affair” with home-grown renewables is facing uncertainty due to UK government cuts that are already punishing the sector, warns industry body Scottish Renewables.
Fresh data shows that 42,000 solar schemes, 2,557 wind projects, 204 hydroelectric schemes and three anaerobic digesters are in operation in Scotland.
UK energy and climate change secretary Amber Rudd has caused industry uproar since announcing further cuts to wind and solar support last month. This week she has offered favourable support for fast-tracking oil & gas fracking.
Small-scale electricity-generating renewables are generally defined as projects eligible to claim the government’s feed-in tariff (FIT). They typically provide enough power for a home or business, but can be as large as 5MW.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) is carrying out a review of the scheme, with a deadline of today for the industry to respond to proposals to remove pre-accreditation of FITs. If implemented, this means it will no longer be possible to apply for FITs in advance, only when a scheme is up and running.
"Last month the industry heard major changes were planned for the FIT scheme - changes which would make many projects unviable...” says Stephanie Clark, policy manager at Scottish Renewables.
“Within the next month we're expecting further cost-cutting proposals to be announced.
“The figures released today demonstrate the extent of our love affair with small-scale renewables, but the current level of change and uncertainty is already punishing the sector."
A Decc spokesperson tells Recharge: “Government support has driven down the cost of renewable energy significantly. As costs continue to fall and we move towards sustainable electricity investment, it becomes easier for parts of the renewables industry to survive without subsidies."
Link: http://www.rechargenews.com/incoming/1409030/scottish-love-affair-with-renewables-facing-uncertain-times
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California pro-solar protestors march in defence of net metering and ITC
Aug 19, 2015 | PV Tech
By Andy Colthorpe
Hundreds of pro-solar protestors and representatives from industry and advocacy groups marched on California’s state capital yesterday, intent on defending net metering policies and lobbying for extension of the investment tax credit (ITC).
California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA) and The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC), a group formed by several big rooftop solar installers, organised yesterday’s event, which was attended by solar industry workers and their families in yellow t-shirts emblazoned with the slogans, “Solar created my job”, and, “Keep solar jobs going!”.
TASC claimed that over 200 people attended the event, arranged in response to plans put forward by California’s three investor-owned utilities for solar support programmes to replace existing net metering arrangements.
Due to falling costs and the relative success of support programmes in fostering large amounts of solar deployment, the state’s regulator, the California Public Utilities’ Commission (CPUC), requested the utilities to come up with their suggestions for successor tariffs to net metering, which exists in one form or another in 43 of the US states.
Two of the three, Southern California Edison (SCE) and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), submitted their proposals around the beginning of August with the other, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), to follow. Presuming they are accepted, CPUC will then have to decide by the end of the year which tariffs will apply, although the changes will not actually be implemented until 2017, or when the three utilities reach a threshold of obtaining 5% of their electricity generation through net metered solar, whichever comes first.
In common with similar ongoing movements in other parts of the US, the plans submitted by SCE and PG&E call for monthly fees to be applied to the tariffs of future residential solar connections, ostensibly to pay for the use of the electrical grid. SCE pointed out that solar system owners will remain reliant on grid infrastructure for some of their electricity and claimed that some costs are being borne by non-solar utility customers. In a statement circulated to press to lay out its proposal, the utility also said it would not raise additional profit from the new plan.
“Customers who generate power remain connected to the power network and in fact it is the network that enables them to import and export power from their systems. This proposal does not increase the total amount of money or profits SCE receives from its customers,” the utility said.
In addition, residents who newly install solar would receive less for their net metered electricity than before under both utilities’ plans. TASC and CALSEIA claim that this, combined with the expected drop of the federal ITC at the end of 2017 from 30% to 10% mean that the solar industry in California faces “a major cliff within the next fifteen months” as the policy changes come into effect.
CALSEIA’s executive director, Bernadette Del Chiaro, said that yesterday’s event was about saving jobs in the state.
“This cliff we are speeding toward could unnecessarily cost the state tens of thousands of quality jobs, which is the opposite direction we should be headed,” Del Chiaro said.
In a statement, TASC said the CPUC was “under pressure” from the three utilities to “end net metering and thereby crush the rooftop solar industry”. The group lamented the fact this would mean limited choices for customers who wanted “cleaner, cheaper energy” and the lack of competition this could result in.
TASC could only give estimates of how many workers and companies would be affected, claiming that as many as 40% of California solar companies could lay off employees.Buying out disruption
Another criticism that has been levelled at utilities from a number of sources, including analyst John Farrell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), is that utilities in various parts of the US are attempting to co-opt or own rooftop solar programmes. In 'If you can’t beat ‘em, own ‘em – utilities muscle in to rooftop solar market', a piece published on 11 August on the ILSR blog, Farrell said that around the US, utilities are waking up to the disruption to their existing revenues posed by solar and “want a piece of the action”.
“In the past five years, rooftop solar has revealed the limitations of the archaic electric utility business model, as customers have found generating their own power more cost effective than taking 100% of their energy from the incumbent monopoly,” Farrell wrote.
“For years, utilities have fought back by trying to make competition less cost effective, at a substantial cost to their image (and ratepayer’s own money). Now they want a piece of the action.”
According to Farrell’s analysis of proposed programmes by two utilities in Arizona, the customer benefit of utility ownership would be dwarfed by the increase in financial benefit enjoyed by the utilities, Tucson Electric Power and Arizona Public Service.
Presumably a tone of conciliation will be sought eventually. TASC was founded by a number of rooftop solar companies, including SolarCity, the management of which has said, through statements and blogs by CTO Peter Rive and others, that it sees collaboration with utilities as natural and ultimately could be of benefit to all parties, especially as even newer technologies such as energy storage are introduced to networks.
A representative of another TASC member company, Sunrun, said that above all the industry craves certainty and said net metering is the only state-level support scheme proven to assist deployment.
“The rooftop solar industry needs long-term certainty. Net metering is the only proven state policy that puts solar into the hands of homeowners, renters, schools, churches, farmers and businesses”, Walker Wright, Sunrun’s director of public policy, said.
Link: http://www.pv-tech.org/news/advocacy_groups_hold_solar_workers_day_in_california_to_defend_net_metering
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World Needs 53GW Of Solar PV Installed Per Year To Address Climate Change
Aug 19, 2015 | Clean Technica
By Sophie Vorrath
A new report has suggested the world will need to install solar PV at an average rate of 53GW a year from 2013-2020 as it transforms its energy mix to prevent dangerous climate change.
As reported here, global investment bank Citigroup has become the latest authoritative source to warn of the high cost – economic and environmental – of inaction on climate change action, and to tally the economic benefits of shifting to low-carbon energy, transport and industrial systems.
Energy markets – as the single biggest emitter of greenhouse gases – are, of course, a big focus. And according to Citi’s ‘action’ scenario, we will need to add a lot of renewable energy to the global power mix if we are to avoid dangerous climate change – and a great deal of that will need to be solar PV.
“In comparison with our Citi ‘Inaction’ scenario, the carbon intensity of the electricity mix drops in our Citi ‘Action’ scenario from 0.54t (CO2e)/MWh to 0.25t (CO2e)/MWh due to the shift in electricity mix (Figure 69),” the Citi report, published on Tuesday, says.
“In 2040 we estimate that 15.4GTCO2e per year is being saved between both our scenarios. Two-thirds of these savings relate to investments into solar PV and onshore wind while the remaining third is due to energy efficiency investments.”
Citi says that a key difference between its forecasts for renewables growth and those from the International Energy Agency (IEA) is the assumed penetration in the electricity mix. In the particular it says, in its Citi “Action” scenario, its forecasts for solar PV deviate significantly from the IEA’s.
“Our granular country by country solar PV forecasts show an average installation rate of 53GW per annum 2013-2020,” the report says. “This compares to 33-34GW installations by the IEA (lower bound New Policy scenario, upper bound 450 scenario).”
Citi says that with the rapid fall in the cost of electricity from renewables it expects solar PV to be competitive with conventional fossil fuels by 2030; “and hence there is theoretically no need for further incentives via a carbon price in the power market alone.”
This is what Citi calls Energy Darwinism – as you can see in the charts below. It means that solar PV is going to get cheaper and cheaper – and with battery technology, more reliable – and beat out traditional energy sources, with or without policy help (although the latter is important out to 2030 if we want to get on top of that thing called climate).
Link: https://cleantechnica.com/2015/08/19/world-needs-53gw-of-solar-pv-installed-per-year-to-address-climate-change/
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EU debate on green energy targets pitches UK against Germany
Aug 19, 2015 | Reuters (in Business Insider)
By Barbara Lewis
Britain and Germany will line up on opposite sides of a European Union green energy debate starting next month on how to meet agreed renewable fuel targets for the next decade.
The 28 member states agreed climate and energy goals last October, but to make it easier to get a deal, the decision went only as far as a framework.
In outline, the 2030 agreement includes cutting greenhouse gases by at least 40 percent versus 1990 and raising the share of renewable energy to at least 27 percent from 20 percent by 2020.
The emissions target will be mandatory in the wider framework of U.N. climate goals to be reviewed in Paris at the end of the year.
So far, the 2030 renewable goal is binding only at EU-wide level and the challenge is to ensure it is met as the bloc as a whole cannot be fined for infringement.
Germany, which is pushing through its Energiewende, or shift from nuclear to green energy, wants binding laws.
In has produced a position statement circulated over the summer weeks in Brussels referred to by diplomats as "the 'what if?' paper".
"In the end, there has to be a consequence if the contributions do not add up to at least 27 percent. There is no point in pretending there won't be any," the German paper, seen by Reuters, says. "The heads of states agreed on an EU binding target – not on an EU-hoping-target."
Portugal also takes a firm line in another paper designed to influence diplomats. It says "a strong governance system" with "clear compliance mechanisms" is needed to attract investors.
Campaigners agree.
"Investors' confidence for clean energy will develop only on the back of a strong and reliable governance system," Imke Luebbeke, policy officer at campaign group WWF, said.
In the opposite camp, Britain aligned with the Czech Republic in a joint paper urging a "light-touch and non-legislative" approach.
Luxembourg, holder of the EU presidency until the end of the year, says governance, as the formal implementation of the outline policy is known, is a priority.
After a preliminary meeting in July, closed-door technical talks begin in earnest in mid-September.
One EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said progress will be difficult, but there are "points of agreement". "There has to be some system of national plans and cross-border sharing," the official said.
More is at stake than numerical goals.
Whether the European Commission can fulfill its ambition to pool energy resources across EU borders and curb dependence on external suppliers, such as Russia, is also in question, analysts say.
"It (governance) essentially decides whether the plans for an energy union can become successful, or whether they do not move beyond the nice ambitions phase," Tim Boersma of Washington's Brookings Institution said.
Link: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-eu-debate-on-green-energy-targets-pitches-uk-against-germany-2015-8
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Yingli Green receives official NYSE de-listing notice
Aug 19, 2015 | PV Tech
By Mark Osborne
Major tier-one PV manufacturer Yingli Green Energy has said it received an official notice from the NYSE on 13 August 2015 that it was not in compliance with the minimum US$1.0 share price threshold.
PV Tech had exclusively revealed yesterday that Yingli Green was at threat of receiving the de-listing notice after trading below the threshold for 30 consecutive trading days.
Yingli Green noted that it expected to notify the NYSE of its intent to comply with the ruling within the six-month ‘cure’ period but did not state what the strategy would be.
Typically, companies take the option of a reverse stock split, reducing the number of shares traded to boost the value.
As PV Tech had previously noted, Yingli Green issued a ‘going concern’ warning in its 2014 annual report, in mid-May, while its shares have declined around 75% in the last 12 months.
Link: http://www.pv-tech.org/news/yingli_green_receives_official_nyse_de_listing_notice
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SolarCity Has a New Plan to Make Distributed Energy an Integral Part of the Grid
Aug 18, 2015 | Greentech Media
By Jeff St. John
SolarCity has an idea for how to help California utilities tap their own customers as an integral part of their billion-dollar distribution grid plans: put them first in line.
The plan is called a “distribution loading order” -- a variation of the state’s longstanding loading order that puts renewables and efficiency ahead of fossil-fuel-fired power for large-scale power procurements and transmission planning.
In a white paper this week, SolarCity wrote that the structure could be a key lever for customer-owned distributed energy resources (DERs) to compete for billions of dollars of distribution grid projects being planned by the state’s big three utilities.
In simple terms, a distribution loading order would require utilities to assess green-powered, grid-responsive customers and their aggregated value first, before paying for new wires, poles and transformer upgrades. It would also put existing DERs in front of utility contracts and procurements for distributed energy, like Southern California Edison’s groundbreaking Local Capacity Requirement contracts last year.
“Our idea is to start with what’s there, and send the signals on what to do,” said Ryan Hanley, SolarCity’s senior director of grid engineering solutions, in an interview. “After you find out what you can do with your pricing signals, then you do an RFP.”
It’s a simple concept, but with radical implications for how utilities identify, plan and procure for their distribution grid needs. It also comes at a time when California is suddenly wide open to innovative grid-DER integration concepts.
Under a California Public Utilities Commission decision last year, the state’s big investor-owned utilities are already turning in distribution resource plans(DRPs). These lay out where their grid circuits could be helped or hurt by distributed energy resources, and set goals for figuring out just how they can best be valued as grid assets.
But last week’s integrated demand-side resource proposed decision from Commissioner Mike Florio takes the DRP process to the next level, authorizing new markets, programs or tariff structures that can actually start paying DERs for that value -- or, in fairness, withhold payment if they’re going to be a grid burden.
Florio’s proposal calls for policies that allow rooftop solar, energy storage, plug-in vehicles, energy efficiency, demand response, and any other kind of demand-side resource to compare its costs and benefits to any other, in any combination, without being trapped by programs or incentive structures for single technologies.
California is rife with projects of this sort, but they’re either pilot-scale, as withPG&E’s distributed demand-response programs, or they're being conducted under closely-held utility terms, as with Southern California Edison’s LCR contracts. Meanwhile, customer incentives are split up into energy-efficiency programs, self-generation incentive program credits, energy storage mandates, demand response payments, and the potential to play a role in the state’s grid markets.
In this kind of fractured and overlapping economic landscape, customers don’t have much chance of banding together to compete on utility contracts, and utilities have limited visibility into the range of value those customers could provide, said Stephanie Wang, senior policy and regulatory attorney for the Center for Sustainable Energy.
“Existing incentives and value streams don’t provide the right signals to adopt complementary solutions that provide synergistic value to the grid,” she said. That goes for how California’s greenhouse-gas reduction goals align with various programs as well, she noted.
A distribution loading order could force utilities to go out and identify these values, if only to find out if they’re less costly opportunities than third-party procurements. And, if it’s expressed in the form of new tariffs that actively reward DERs for meeting “right place, right time” grid solutions, it could bring that value out of the landscape, by giving companies and customers the financial incentive to invest in them.Building the flexibility of customer choice into grid planning
One of the challenges in making customers a part of grid planning is that it's difficult to know what they’re going to do. Energy prices are a blunt instrument when it comes to forcing behavior change. Even automated and aggregated DERs lack the always-on communications and control between grid operators and, say, utility-scale solar and wind farms.
Still, there are methods to determine the effective load-carrying capacity of distributed renewables at scale, or predict the response of lots of household batteries and smart thermostats to rising and falling prices.
SolarCity proposes building some headroom into how the distribution loading order calculates the capacity of customer-owned DER, versus its “availability” for those must-have grid moments, “to probabilistically discount the different types of distribution products." That would inform the utility as to how much it needed to contract for, or build itself, to stand in as last-resort grid resources, as the following chart shows.
As for how companies like SolarCity will go about proving their DERs can do what they say they can, “Smart inverters will be on every new installation going forward,” Hanley said, which will allow monitoring and control of solar, storage and EV chargers at homes and businesses.
California’s utilities have made it pretty clear that they want to have direct access to whatever DERs they take on as grid investments, whether to actively dispatch them for grid needs or to monitor them for compliance with their chosen task. At the same time, they’re starting to experiment with tariffs for behind-the-meter batteries, smart thermostats and plug-in EVs to help defer distribution grid investments
Ted Ko, policy director at behind-the-meter battery startup Stem, noted at a Thursday CPUC workshop that his company is installing 85 megawatts of storage under its Southern California Edison contract, and is meeting some stringent terms for its ability to work closely with the utility on how they’re dispatched. At the same time, “Price signals are going to get all these customers who have these assets engaged at a very low cost," he said.
That’s one way to shift the risks of picking the wrong technology from utility ratepayers to the private sector, said Tom Starrs, SunPower’s vice president of market strategy and policy, at Thursday’s meeting.
“There is an opportunity to encourage customers themselves to invest in the assets. That kind of takes care of the problem of stranded regulatory costs,” he said. While individual customers might make unwise investment decisions, “You won’t have ratepayers as a whole bearing the burden of that.”
Of course, because utilities earn a regulated rate of return on capital expenditures like distribution system upgrades, that’s not necessarily something they’re happy about. SolarCity CTO Peter Rive suggested at Thursday’s meeting that utilities be allowed to earn returns on distributed energy resources as a service. “You could meet that load growth with standalone solar. In other cases, it could be solar with a little battery. In either case, it’s much cheaper than a transformer upgrade.”
In other words, Hanley said, “We think we can run a business off of that.” SolarCity is already selling Tesla’s behind-the-meter batteries with its solar systems and has been testing their ability to work in concert as an aggregated grid resource. But “if there were time-of-use tariffs, we could put in batteries every day, and use them to shift load,” he said.
Connected water heaters and smart thermostats could be added too, said Hanley. “You could be like us, and do it all for customers, or if you’re a hardware provider, you can supply the technology to adapt to these prices. It’s great for Nest too -- they can control their thermostats and adjust as needed.”
Link: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/solarcity-to-californias-grid-tap-the-distributed-energy-thats-there-first
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What Made Chinese Mayors Step Up Pollution Fight?
Aug 18, 2015 | The Diplomat
By Liu Qin
In China, “APEC blue” was the sarcastic term used to refer to the unusually clear skies Beijing enjoyed when an Asia-Pacific leaders summit was in progress late last year.
A similar phenomenon is now being seen in smaller Chinese cities, as mayors are summoned to the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) for “chats,” resulting in sudden improvements in air quality. Mayors or their deputies from around ten cities have been ordered to Beijing to explain to environment ministry officials why levels of air pollution have remained so bad.
With demands for swift and decisive action ringing in their ears, municipal leaders have responded by ordering drastic measures, such as tough curbs on sectors including vehicle use, construction, and the burning of coal, all of which produce tiny particulate matter deemed extremely harmful to human health.
The Henan city of Zhengzhou saw a miraculous improvement in July, after suffering awful air quality for the first half of the year. More than three weeks ago, air quality reached a “good” level, and almost vaulted the city into the “excellent” category.
In Zhengzhou’s case, an improvement took root before Ma Yi, the city’s mayor, met with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, also in the final week of July. Residents of the Henan city poked fun at the timing of the improvement, referring to it as “chatting blue.” Zhengzhou environment officials said curbs on a range of emitting sectors including cars, construction and coal had played a large part, but acknowledged that the better air quality typically seen in July and August had also been a factor.
But the MEP has demanded that tough measures are taken over the longer term, and asked Zhengzhou to prepare and submit a plan on how it will address the problems. The central government may suspend approval of new factories and buildings if the city does not show some progress in six months.
In the first half of the year Zhengzhou’s air quality ranked 71 out of 74 cities in a government survey, bringing it under closer scrutiny from an increasingly empowered MEP.
Other cities are experiencing bluer skies after the dreaded summons to Beijing. Against the backdrop of China’s National People’s Congress in March, Zhang Shuping, the mayor of Linyi in Shandong province, was obliged to take drastic measures against pollution after a meeting with the central government. Upon Zhang’s return, 412 factories were ordered to clean up their operations and 57 forced to close down while changes were made. Small, antiquated operations with little hope of improvement shut down for good.
The “Linyi model” became a fevered topic of debate in policy circles. Some local officials and industry bosses complained that shutting down polluting factories would harm the city’s economy and throw many workers onto the unemployment scrapheap. But the majority of Linyi’s environmental officials and members of the public appeared supportive.
Since March, around 20 company bosses and mayors have endured a “walk of shame” to appear for meetings with the MEP, after which officials in city administrations have been warned, formally criticized, or even fired in a bid by city bosses to deliver rapid improvements. After the mayor of Ma’anshan in Anhui province was ordered to Beijing, four senior cadres in the city who failed to pull their weight on environmental issues were demoted, and one deputy county head had a serious offense added to his official record.
Despite the seriousness that a summoning to Beijing entails, some commentators feel the measures haven’t gone far enough and that a wider pool of high-ranking officials should explain poor pollution figures to the central government.
Cadres being groomed for the post deputy provincial governor should be ordered to attend, as well as city Communist Party secretaries, said Chang Jiwen, deputy head of the Resources and Environment Policy Institute, part of the State Council’s Development Research Center. Summoning more officials could spur tougher action and help prevent chronic pollution levels from reoccurring, Chang said.
Preventing air quality from creeping back toward the woeful levels seen earlier this year is likely to be one of the major remits of the MEP’s harder focus on prefecture level cities.
The central government will be mindful of the short-lived nature of improved air quality in Beijing around the time of the 2008 Olympic Games, after which many curbs on polluters were lifted and heavy industries in neighboring provinces cranked up output, contributing to off-the-scale smog levels.
Link: http://thediplomat.com/2015/08/what-made-chinese-mayors-step-up-pollution-fight/
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Saudi Investors Join $70 Million VC Round For Solexel's Thin Silicon Solar Technology
Aug 18, 2015 | The Energy Collective
By Eric Wesoff
More than $240 million in funding, so far, as Solexel moves to volume production of high-efficiency thin silicon solar panels
Solexel, one of the few remaining stand-alone solar silicon startups, has completed a long-in-the-making $70 million round of funding and added Riyadh Valley Company, the VC investment arm of King Saud University of Saudi Arabia, to its list of investors. According to an SEC form, Solexel closed the D round in June.
Last year, Solexel added new investor GAF, a large roofing materials manufacturer, to its roster of investors, which includes SunPower, KPCB, Technology Partners, DAG Ventures, Gentry Ventures, Northgate Capital, GSV Capital, Jasper Ridge Partners, and Spirox. The firm's board of directors includes Mehrdad Moslehi and Michael Wingert of Solexel, as well as Ira Ehrenpreis of Technology Partners, Les Vadasz, Jan van Dokkum of KPCB, and Greg Williams of DAG Ventures. SunPower did not reinvest in last year's D round first close. Earlier this year Solexel picked up $25 million in senior debt financing from Opus Bank.
The startup hit an NREL-certified cell efficiency of 21.2 percent in 2014 with its back contact cell and looks to produce PV modules at 20 percent efficiency.
As we reported previously, Solexel looks to partner in Malaysia to build the modules and cells. The firm has a megawatt-scale pilot line in Milpitas, which it intends to "copy-exact in Malaysia," according to CFO Mark Kerstens.
Solexel is hoping to mass produce 35-micron-thick, high-performance, low-cost monocrystalline solar cells using a lift-off technology based on a reusable template and a porous silicon substrate.
According to the company's claims, the process ensures that the thin silicon is supported during handling and processing, while the back-contact, n-type cell dispenses with the need for expensive silver, using aluminum instead. The process uses no wet steps, according to CEO Michael Wingert, and employs CVD on trichlorosilane gas at atmospheric pressure, with silicon deposited at a rate of 2.5 microns per minute. The cell uses nearly ten times less silicon than conventional c-Si cells, at about 0.5 grams per watt.
Solexel claims that its cells don't need the support of glass, and it envisions using lightweight, non-glass sandwich panels in future product offerings. A resin and fiber carrier, akin to circuit board material, supports the thin cell and allows a diode to be added for module shading tolerance.
Board member Ira Ehrenpreis notes, "Solexel’s recent fundraise is one of the most successful capital raises in recent history for private solar cell and module manufacturing companies. Investors understand the extraordinary potential of combining a high efficiency, lightweight product with fully integrated electronics for shade management along with superior aesthetics for the rooftop segment of the market. Other companies have attempted to build a product with one of these elements, but no company has created a product that combined them all – until Solexel." He added, "While some still look in the rear view mirror and see the Darwinian process of several failed attempts by other solar companies, today most instead see the extraordinary growth of the solar market in recent years and an opportunity that’s still in its nascency. Innovative companies that produce differentiated products that can compete on cost, value, and aesthetics will be inevitable winners in the industry."
According to naseba, "The Middle East is the most liquid region in the world today and investors based there are keen to adopt innovation, as well as foster entrepreneurship." The D round included a sales commissions cost of $4.6 million paid to naseba, Harbor Light Securities and National Securities Corporation, according to the SEC document.
Last week, Shunfeng acquired a majority state in advanced silicon solar cell builder Suniva. SolarCity acquired advanced silicon manufacturer Silevo last year. TetraSun was acquired by Firsr Solar in 2013. Solexel CFO Mark Kerstens suggested that most high-efficiency solar panel production is already spoken for by vertically integrated firms, leaving few high-efficiency PV module choices.
Other firms in the thin silicon business include 1366 Technologies with its "direct wafer" technology using molten silicon directly converted into wafers, and Crystal Solar using a vapor deposition process for making thin crystalline silicon wafers.
Last year, Saudi investors acquired Solar Junction, a triple junction solar cell developer. Last month,Glasspoint, a CSP developer focused on enhanced oil recovery, closed a $600 million deal for the largest solar plant on the planet with Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the largest producer of oil and gas in Oman.
Lightweight, attractive, high-efficiency modules can command a premium in certain residential and commercial markets. Meanwhile, First Solar, the thin-film solar leader, recently announced that its manufacturing lines in Malaysia are producing panels at $0.40 per watt at more than 15 percent efficiency. That cost seems to be in line with many of China's polysilcon module manufacturers.
It's taken Solexel close to $250 million to move this differentiated solar technology to the multi-megawatt pilot production line stage. Given the diminished state of cleantech VC, raising that scale of funding is remarkable and required some creativity on part of the team. As did solving what must have been immense materials, scale-up and automation issues for a new branch of solar manufacturing.
It's going to take even more creativity to access the capital required to reach true volume production in a solar market replete with multi-gigawatt-scale global vendors continuing to drive down cost and improve performance.
Link: http://www.theenergycollective.com/eric-wesoff/2261059/saudi-investors-join-70-million-vc-round-solexels-thin-silicon-solar-technology
Press Release - Suntech and Adani Power Collaborate on 200 Megawatts of Solar in India
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