Solar Energy
Articles related to Solar Energy
April 15, 2011
Suniva is the only crystalline solar Solar Companies in the US which has been able to survive and thrive in recent times.Sunpower too has resurrected itself through strategic JVs and acquisitions.The main reason for the decline of the US solar companies has been the severe competition from the low cost Chinese Solar Industry.This has made companies like Energy Conversion Devices and Evergreen Solar shut down US factories and look towards Mexico and China to build low cost factories.However Suniva has managed to face all these competitive threats quite successfully and is looking to expand capacity in the US by building a 400 MW factory.The company even refused a DOE Loan Guarantee saying that the terms were too onerous.The company has manged to raise more then $130 million in equity and has won contracts to supply high efficiency solar cells to the Asian companies which is a first.Suniva differentiates itself through its technology which allows the production of high efficiency monocrystalline solar cells at lower cost.Note Sunpower makes the highest efficiency cells in the world in the range of 22-24% but its cost structure is too high.Suniva is looking to challenge the Taiwanese Cell Producers by marrying higher efficiency with lower cost.
April 15, 2011
Areva the French Nuclear Giant which is known more for producing equipment for nuclear power plants is been awarded federal funding by the Australian Government to build a solar coal hybrid plant in Queensland.The 44 MW Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Plant will be built near a 750 Thermal Power Station.This will be the second solar coal hybrid plant in the world when its gets finished in 2013.Note Areva has huge plans in the Solar Thermal Technology Industry after buying startup Ausra sometimes ago.The company which is an expert in power plant equipment technology such as boilers,turbines will use its expertise to build a CSP plant adding to the power output of the Kogan Creek Thermal Station.Note the cost mentioned implies around $2.4/watt which does not seem expensive.The CSP Coal Hybrid will not require storage which will help in reducing the costs of the power plant.Note a number of Fossil Fuel Solar Hybrid Plants are being planned around the world.Almost all of these power plants use CSP Technology instead of the PV Technology.Its a valuable niche for Solar Thermal Companies to explore as they face huge competition from Solar PV which is drastically reducing its costs to reach retail electricity price equality.
April 15, 2011
Spain has started cracking down on Solar Power Plants which are making huge profits through illegal Feed in Tariffs which they should not get.Note Spain had seen a massive boom in solar installations in 2008 due to unusually large ROI driven by high Feed in Tariffs.FIT are electricity rates which are higher than wholesale electricity rates paid to renewable energy power plants in order to make them competitive with cheaper fossil fuel power plants.Seeing a huge increase in the subsidy burden Spain has pretty much killed the solar market in 2009,however the problems of Fiscal Deficit has made Spain reconsider the tariffs being given to even older solar power plants.After a lot of controversy,Spain changed the FIT rules in the middle of the game through a retroactive FIT Law drawing howls of protest from solar investors like pension funds which have sued the government
April 14, 2011
Solar Power is the only form of Energy whose costs are continuously declining compared to other forms of Energy.This is one of the biggest advantages of Solar Power over other renewable and non-renewable forms of energy.Solar Energy costs have declined by over 50% in the last 2-3 years even as Coal,Oil,Gas and other Energy costs have gone up.While Wind Energy costs have declined in the last year the overall trend is increasing as the costs of copper and steel go up.This is one of the main reasons why solar energy demand has gone up by 150% in 2010.With solar costs going down by another 10% each year over the next few years,expect Solar Energy to grow at a further fast rate in the future as well after growing at 50% CAGR over the last decade.Here are some of the advantages of Solar Energy over other non-renewable energy forms
April 14, 2011
First Solar Thin Film Leader and the largest solar company by value has decided to shift focus towards the commercial segment between 10-30 KW in size..The company was promoted by Wal-Mart promoters and has seen remarkable growth in the last few.This US based company uses Cadmium Tellurium (Cd-Te) Technology and is the lowest cost panel producer in the world today if you don’t include any penalty for low efficiency.Note First Solar derives most of its revenues from large utility solar power plants where the lower costs of its Cadmium Tellerium Solar Panels compensates for the Lower Efficiency of its Solar Panels.It does not get too many sales to the commercial and residential market where its lower efficiency panels lose out as they require much larger space to generate the same amount of power. First Solar Panels don't sell well in applications where space is a constraint.Note Sunpower which is the highest efficiency commercial c-Si solar module producer wins out in applications with space constraint.
April 14, 2011
Micro inverters in Solar Energy is a recent phenomenon which has started replacing solar string inverters in residential small solar installations in a small way in USA.Enphase Energy has been instrumental in making this niche technology popular which increases solar panel efficiency by 5-25% and has a number of other advantages over central inverter as well.This has made the major solar inverter companies sit up and even introduce microinverters even on their own.Though the Costs of the Solar System are increased as microinverters cost more per watt,however the reduce the lifecycle costs in small installations through increased reliability,life and productivity.As the Solar Industry has matured,focus has shifted more towards the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) from Solar Panels Electricty generation rather than just on the Solar Capital Investment costs.Solar Mic
April 14, 2011
Solar Microinverters typciall sell for 75-90c/watt which means that if all the solar installations in the world at around 18 GW were done using microinverters,then the size of the addressable market would be $12.5-16 billion,however a lot of the installations are larger than 1 MW in which micro inverters are not used.Also micro inverters are mainly sold in the US and Canada so the total size of the addressable market becomes more like 500 MW which is around $$375-450 million dollars.Enphase Energy the biggest microinverter manufacturer has sold around 500,000 prouducts which implies total lifetime revenues of around $40 million.According to IMS Research around 1 GW of microinverters would be installed in 2013 and the market size would be around $700 million.I think the market size will be greater given that other geographies have not been penetrated,the residential solar market is growing faster and more companies will lead to a bigger market
April 14, 2011
Solar Microinverters have opened an entire new category in the traditional Solar Inverter Industry threatening the business model of the incumbent companies which have seen spectacular growth in recent years.Solar Inverter Manufacturers have enjoyed enviable growth of more than 50% CAGR to become a $5 billion industry in 2010.However this industry faces competition from a host of new tiny competitors led by Enphase Energy who claim to reduce costs,increase reliability and add monitory plus flexibility as compared to String Inverters.The threat is the most in residential and commercial solar installations where the advantages of solar micro inverters are more pronounced than in utility applications.Solar EPC Companies in the USA have started adopting this new product though the growing size of the Solar Inverter Industry has managed to temporarily lower the thread.SMA Solar,the biggest solar inverter company in the world recently bought a couple of firms like OKE Services to increase its presence in distributed electronics for the solar panel industry.Here is a list of advantages and disadvantages of Central Inverters and Microinverters.
April 14, 2011
Enphase Energy is one of the most innovative solar startup companies that have come up in the USA especially without a billion dollar DOE Loan guarantee backing it up.Enphase Energy makes solar products that help in the production of solar energy from solar cells rather than being involved in the production of solar panels themselves.Enphase has created an entire new category of Solar Inverters - Micro-Inverters.The company which has private has plans to do a stock listing through an IPO though no date has been announced.Enphase not only does the mundane task of converting the DC Solar Energy into AC Electricity usable by household appliances,but also incorporate communication chips which allow the monitoring of the performance of the solar panels remotely through the Internet.Enphase Energy has also entered into the closely related "Energy Efficiency" Industry by selling Smart Thermostats which can remotely monitor and manage the temperature of a house.Enphase has sold around half a million microinverters till date and has recently tied up with Siemens to distribute its products to installers worldwide.
April 12, 2011
Solar Power Plants have mushroomed in different parts of the world as Global Solar Demand has increased by more than 150% in 2010.Solar Power Plants built on the Ground differ from that put on the Roofs of Houses as they require to go through feasibility,environmental assessment,grid connection,siting etc. which is typical for a large industrial project.The time taken to build a solar power plant project is also much more than a rooftop residential solar installation.Solar Farms are being mainly being built in countries which have subsidy program like tax rebates,feed in tariffs etc.However building a solar plant has become quite easy unlike in the past as solar panel,solar inverters and installation expertise is more easily available.The regulations and permits for building a solar plant or a solar farm on the other hand differ from country to country and region to region depending on federal and state laws.For a Large Solar Plant like the Aqua Caliente,there are a number of permitting steps that have to be passed before the plant can be built.For smaller power plants in the 5 MW range the requirements are less.In general the smaller the size of the solar installation,the lower the number of regulations required.Here are the steps required in building a Solar Power Plant
April 12, 2011
Solar Lamps or Solar Lanterns have seen astounding growth in India driven mainly by the lack of access to electricity and the high costs of Kerosene or gas lamps.Note Solar Lamps have been so successful in India mainly due to their economic utility rather than their Green Characteristics.Note 100,000 Indian villages do not yet have electricity which means that the productivity comes to a complete stop in the dark.Poor schoolchildren cannot study in the dark and people cannot work in the night either.Note Kerosene a dirty oil refined product is the main source of energy for millions of Indian citizens.Kerosene is a health hazard resulting in accidental fires and causing a lot of smoke which can lead to various respiratory diseases.Note Kerosene is subsidized by the Indian government and distributed through the Public Distribution System (PDS) which is a massively corrupt and inefficient system.The Kerosene is given in limited quantities and is not sufficient to Light the Darkness for a month or more.The advent of Solar LED Lamps has been a godsend solution to this problem.
April 12, 2011
Solar Power In India is seeing massive growth driven by favorable government subsides,India's rising Energy Demand and Declining Costs of Solar Energy.PV Solar Systems not only consist of Solar Panels but also of Solar Inverters,Wires,Junction Boxes and other Balance of System Equipment.Solar Inverters are the most important part of a Solar Panel after Solar Panels and form around 10-15% of the Solar System Cost though it can be more or less depending on the type of technology,vendor etc.Solar Inverters in India are mostly imported though a few domestic and interanational manufacturers have set up manufacturing operations.Note Solar Inverters had been in shortage in 2010 due to a shortage of IGBTs which are semicondutor components.However a rapid capacity expansion by major solar inverter manufacturers like SMA,Power-One has led to a glut in solar inverters.Solar Inverters can cost between 30-60c/watt depending on the type,size,vendor etc.The ~$2.1 billion market in 2009 with 7 GW of installations has increased by more than 130% to around $5 billion in 2010 as the solar panel demand globally increased to around 17 GW.Note Solar Inverter Companies have done much better as competition is much lower and the annual price declines in solar inverters has been much lower at around 10% compared to the 50% decline in solar panel in the last 2-3 years..Note Solar Inverters are required for all types of Solar PV applications like Thin Film,CPV and Crystalline.
April 12, 2011
Brightsource Energy,the Solar Thermal Startup has been making huge progress getting high profile investors and managing a $1.37 billion DOE grant for its Ivanpah 392 MW Solar Thermal Power Plant.The Company has managed to get its billion dollar Ivanpah Project financed through equity investments from NRG Energy and Google.It is now looking set to do an IPO which would allow its Stock to List and gain further funds for expansion in USA,China and India.Note I don't think Solar Thermal Technology is managing to compete effectively with the fast declining costs of Solar Photovoltaic Technology.However there still exists a niche area for Solar Thermal Companies and Technology.Note there are a number of Solar Thermal Companies fighting for the No.1 Position which includes giants like Siemens,Areva,Abengoa and startups like eSolar.Which one of these companies will be successful in the face of the Solar PV Onslaught is a matter of debate.However Brightsource has certainly stole a march through smart funding.Here is some facts about Brightsource Energy
April 11, 2011
Solar Power in India is increasing at a rapid pace and will become one of the biggest energy industries in the next decade as falling costs of solar energy and India's rising demand makes it a perfect match.Solar Companies in India are constanly growing by the day as firms rush in to take advantage of the vast investment and profit potential in India's Solar Energy Market.BHEL which is India’s largest Capitals Good Company has big solar ambitions.BHEL has strong capabilities in the field of making electricity generating equipment.Extending these capabilities in the field of solar power generation is a natural extension.It is following the JV route with various other Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) like HPCL,BEL and IOC to build power plants and solar equipment factories in the country.Most of these JVs have been dormant till now but the JV with BEL is now looking to move on.The JV is scouting for sites to build a 250 MW integrated c-Si Solar Factory which will also have India's first polysilicon and wafer manufacturing operations.Note India has a large capacity of solar cells and modules but does not have a commercial solar wafer or poly plant which are essential raw materials for making Solar Panels.Till now Solar Panels in India are made from imported Solar Wafers from companies like LDK,GCL,REC,Solarworld and others.There are a few private companies who are looking to set up upstream manufacturing in solar as well.Note there are other Indian government owned PSUs which too are looking to enter Solar Energy Industry as well
April 11, 2011
Solar Power Plants till a couple of years were quite small compared to the mainstream energy power plants.Most power plants were in the double digit range with no Solar Farms having the capacity of 100 MW or greater.This is in reference to PV Solar Power Plants and not to Solar Thermal Plants which are bigger in size.Note Solar Thermal Plants by the very nature of technology require larger sizes to be economical just like Thermal or Nuclear Power Plants.On the other hand PV Power Plants do not gain much in economies of scale and government prefer giving subsidies to distributed rooftop solar installations rather than large solar farms.
April 11, 2011
Meyer Burger (MBTN.S) the 6th largest supplier of solar equipment in the world jumped up 2 places by acquiring the 7th largest global solar equipment manufacturer Roth & Rau of Germany for a little over $500 million.The combined company will have revenues of over $900 million overtaking another Germany company Centrotherm with $825 million in revs.Note Applied Materials continues to be the market leader in the solar equipment market with $1.5 billion in solar equipment revenues just like it is the leader in the semiconductor equipment market.Note while European solar module producers have seen their marketshare and revenues crumbling in the face of the Chinese onslaught , there domination of the solar equipment continues. European Solar Companies had found things going tough in 2009 as the solar market changed radically with the Lehman crisis.As the prices of the raw material Polysilicon crashed and Chinese competition increased,these companies started bleeding red ink in a prodigious manner.The high cost structure of these companies with factories in Europe stood naked against the competition.With high debt loads,there was a high chance that these companies would go bankrupt.Most of them like Q-Cells,REC started to move manufacturing to Asia while Solarworld moved to Europe.
April 7, 2011
Solar Carports are a relatively new Solar Energy Product compared to other Solar Products like Solar Heaters and Solar Cooking.Solar Carports are fast catching on as their dual use of protecting,shading a car as well as providing electricity to nearby offices and buildings.It makes use of real estate that would go waste so it provides a lot of value add besides helping in protecting the environment as well.
April 7, 2011
It is surprising to see the US Media jumping about saying the General Electric will build the biggest solar factory in the US when it is completely factually wrong.There are other companies that add 400 MW in a single quarter these days (eg.LDK). By the time GE builds its 400 MW Cadmium Tellurium Solar Panel facility,there will be around 20 players in the world with more than 1000 MW capacity.GE has been claiming high efficiencies for its Thin Film Solar Panels but the claims that it will be able to dethrone First Solar as the Leader seems far fetched currently.Note First Solar will have almost 7 times more capacity worldwide by the time GE builds its first solar panel facility.GE has been long been developing the Cadmium Tellurium Technology buying up Prime Solar.
April 7, 2011
India launched its Solar Mission by the name of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) with a lofty target of 20 GW by 2022.The Solar Mission has been divided into 3 phases and promotes solar energy installation,solar industry,solar heaters and off grid solar.Note the Solar Mission provides subsidies and incentives to promote the use of Solar Energy from the Central Government.Different States such as Gujarat have enacted laws to support solar energy on their own which is seperate from the Federal Target for Solar Power.I think the 20 GW target for 2022 is very low and will be easily exceeded but that is a separate discussion.The Solar Mission is not a rigid document but is a work in motion as the second and third phases will be implemented taking in the feedback and success of the first phase of the Solar Mission which has already announced the Solar Project Winners.
April 7, 2011
Solar Industry is a fast growing exciting industry with its inevitable growth pangs as well.The first phase of India's Federal Policy has seen many hurdles and its success is in doubt,on the other hand Gujarat has managed to attract investment and power plants through a forward looking subsidy.States like Uttar Pradesh,Delhi,Maharashtra are also tentatively coming up with their own incentive policies.The Industry will see many ups and downs before it becomes a major billion dollar industry.Note Solar Power Industry has become the fastest growing in USA where it doubled last year and looks set to double this year again.The Nuclear Accident in Japan has given fresh energy to Solar Power with China set to double its target to 10 GW by 2015.
April 6, 2011
Solar Energy in India represents one of the best Energy opportunities in the 21st Century.However the growth at least in the initial stages will be geographically unequal.This is due to the fact that Solar Power requires strong government support and subsidies currently.The Indian Federal Government has already given it a strong push targeting 1000 MW by 2013 and 20 GW by 2022 under the JNSSM.While the Subsidy Program is facing some initial hurdles due to debt financing and aggressive project bidding,individual States are forging ahead to push Solar Energy on their own.Gujarat has been a trailblazer in this regard with The State has already recieved proposals for setting up around 365 MW of Solar Power.Gujarat through its own RPS and Feed in Tariff incentives is targeting 1000 MW by 2013.Rajasthan too is trying to exploit is massive solar insolation potential but its state policies have little clarity or direction yet.The state has signed around 1524 MW of Solar Project with 49 Developers.The Solar Policy Draft Proposal is mostly vague with a target of 10-12 GW in 10-12 years with around 500 MW in the next 2-3 years.Rajasthan is set to see massive solar installation despite its government's vagueness from the Federal JNNSM subsidy.Other states in India like UP,Delhiand Maharashtra have recently started making some moves but remains to be seen how good they are at implementing.While the UP solar subsidy is clearly quite ridiculous,Delhi seems to be on the way to implementing a smart policy of promoting small roof top solar residential installations.
April 6, 2011
Monocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells is the dominant Solar Cell Manufacturing Process in which a highly purified form of Polysilicon is converted through a series of process into a small Solar Cell capable of converting solar energy into electrical energy.Note Monocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells are closely related to Mutlicrystalline Silicon Solar Cells differentiated only in terms of efficiency and cost.Monocrystalline Solar Technology uses a single crystal of Silicon which means less defects and higher efficiency in solar cells built from Monocrystalline Solar Wafers.
April 6, 2011
Phillipines is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels for its energy requirements as it lacks sufficient domestic resources of coal or oil.The country which already has […]
April 5, 2011
PV Solar Cells or Photovoltaic Solar Cells are the building blocks of Solar Panels which are used to generate electricity from the Sun in residential or commercial establishments.Solar Cells are made of crystalline silicon the same substance that is used to make semiconductors which go into making of electronic products.Note Thin Film Solar Cells are not found for practical purposes as Thin FIlm Solar Production generally is a one step continuous process in which the whole solar panel is produced.On the other hand c-Si production is a 5 step process in which Solar Cells is the intermediate product of the 4th stage and goes as input to making of solar modules/panels.Solar Cells can be bought and made into Solar Panels as PV Solar Cells don't have much of a standalone usage.Note Buying Solar Cells and making DIY Solar Panels does not make much sense as it adds little value and does not save money.You are better off buying Solar Panels from affordable solar panel manufacturers.
April 4, 2011
Terra Firma,the multi billion pound Private Equity firm has continued its Renewable Energy Asset Buying Spree spending a monstrous 641 millino Euros to buy Rete Rinnovabile a solar plant owner and operator in Italy.The acquired company is a susdiary of Italian market grid operator Terna and owns around 150 MW solar capacity in Italy which witnessed a massive solar boom in 2010.The acquisition values 1 MW at 4.5 Euros which would be considered not an expensive price given the large returns available for Italian solar power assets which gets a generous government mandated feed in tariff.The solar power plants are well located near distribution end points which is not a surprise since the company was a subsidiary of the grid power operator.
April 3, 2011
Economically also Solar Panels are starting to approach retail electricity prices in number of places in the world.Large scale solar power plants are already selling power at 10-15c/KwH which is lower than the retail electricity prices in most places.Still competition between solar panel manufacturers,improving technology and scale are making solar panel costs come down at a rapid pace.In fact Solar Panel prices have declined by more than 50% from 2008 end to 2010 and are expected to fall by an average rate of 10% in the coming years as well.However Solar Panels are seldom bought by the customers directly but are rather bought by the solar system installers/contractors.However its a good idea to know about the costs of solar panels and systems that you are paying for and not get fleeced by unscrupulous solar installers.
April 2, 2011
Solar Industry is one of the fastest growing industries on the planet and the number of companies in the industry have increased dramatically attracted by the strong growth prospects and low entry barriers.The easy availability of solar producing equipment and low capital requirements for small companies have led to a mushrooming of the number of players in the industry.Its possible to set up a small 30 MW module production factory for as low an investment as $10 million or lower.Though the value add of a pure play solar panel production factory is low and the competetive position quite questionable nonetheless there are hundreds if not thousands of such small module producers in the world right now.Other parts of the crystalline silicon supply chain have also got a number of players though the technology and captial requirements are much higher.Listing out all the solar companies in the world is a difficult task and somewhat useless as well as many of these small scale solar companies will not exist in a few years as competition keeps intensifying.Consolidation in the solar industry will ensue sometime or the other and lead to a much smaller and sustainable industry.
April 1, 2011
Solar Panels Efficiency – Range,Technology Dependence,Companies with Highest Efficient Solar Modules
The Companies that make the Solar Panels with the highest efficiences are Sunpower and Panasonic/Sanyo.Sunpower has the highest efficient solar modules in the market using a properietary process and has solar cells with efficiency reaching a top limit of 24%.Sanyo also has very efficient solar panels under the HIT brand name.These solar panels also approach the 18% range (solar modules not cells).Normal crystalline plain vanilla solar panels come in the range of 13-14%.Note solar modules have lower efficiency than solar cells as some area is left for the frame etc.There are other companies that are fast catching up to Sunpower and Sanyo in the high efficiency solar panels as well.Note higher efficiency solar panels sell at higher prices per watt as the require lesser area.AUO which has a JV with Sunpower has recently claimed to have produced the higher efficiency solar panel .
April 1, 2011
One of the major reasons for the Chinese success in the export markets in Asia and Africa have been the massive vendor financing done by state owned Chinese banks.Large orders have been won by Chinese companies like Dongfang Electric and Huawei as Chinese Banks financed the multi billion Indian orders by cheap loans.Note in large project finance cases cheap loans can make a huge difference in project returns and can be the clincher in choosing the equipment supplier.The US Exim Bank too seems to be pulling up its socks in helping American companies win large equipment orders through vendor financing.Note the US Exim Bank had got involved in a huge controversy when it agreed to finance a utlra mega power plant based on coal energy by Reliance Power in India.Despite protests by environmentalists,Exim Bank had gone ahead in financing as it would lead to jobs in America.Note USA is one of the biggest laggards in climate change and the government does not really care much out there.