I'm Back!

I'm back! Sorry for the extended absence, but I've had to deal with a continental shift (literally and metaphorically!). I am now back in Asia, ready as ever to cover the solar beat in this important market and the rest of the world.

But first, some tidbits about the latest in large scale solar thermal (aka Big Solar) in the US. PG&E, FPL and venture-backed Ausra are all are bullish on Big Solar and getting into the game, particularly in the open desert regions of California, as this article reports. Look, too, at the Green Wombat's September '07 postings, as he covers in more details the projects that the likes of the above and others like BrightSource are looking at in California, the "Saudi Arabia of solar" and Florida, the self-billed (and increasingly fittingly so) "Sunshine State."

Here's the wiki on what solar thermal is all about.

In the meantime, U.S.-listed Chinese solar companies--LDK, Yingli and Trina--were busy striking deals and other arrangements over the past week. Its worth noting that solar plays, at least on on the NYSE and Nasdaq, have been doing particularly well over the past month.

Non Solars Going Solar

Wells Fargo said it has made the largest equity investment in solar energy in the company's history -- in Nevada Solar One, a 64-megawatt Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant southeast of Las Vegas. The $266 million project developed by Acciona Energy is the largest solar energy facility built in the world in 16 years.

Last month, we caught wind of IBM's possible foray into PV. Now, murmurings are swirling that chip maker Intel and electronics manufacturer Samsung are seeking to expand into the solar business. Intel is reportedly looking at acquisitions in Germany, while Samsung plans to open a solar power plant in Greece by the end of the year.

Solar Boom, All Over the World

A Chinese company has entered into a Sh9 billion partnership with a Kenyan firm to build the first solar panel factory in East Africa. The move is expected to reposition solar as a key source of energy in Kenya by making it more affordable to millions of consumers who depend on the national electricity grid for their energy needs. It is estimated that the Beijing Tianpu Xianxing Enterprises and Electrogen Technologies venture could see the prices of solar panels drop by up to 65 per cent. The project will be implemented through Pan African Technologies, a jointly owned company in which Beijing Tianpu has a 70 per cent interest and will raise $100 million (Sh7 billion) from internal resources. Its local partner is expected take up the remaining fraction of the financing plan in cash and kind, including $40 million (Sh2.8 billion) in cash and three acres of land along Nairobi's Mombasa Road where the factory is to be erected by a local company of Chinese origin. Construction of the facility is set to start in October for completion in March 2008. Once built, the factory will source the materials required locally and employ a minimum of 100 Chinese trained staff.

In the Czech Republic, a 2005 renewable energy law modeled after Germany's has spurred on the Czech solar industry. Last year, the country as a whole generated only 540 MWh of solar energy. Korowatt’s solar plant, which began operating in January, is expected to outdo this total on its own, with 628 MWh expected this year. Another Czech-based company, HiTecSolar, announced completion of its own “largest solar power station in Central Europe,” located in east Moravia.

Japan, already amongst the world's leaders in solar cell production and where solar adoption exist without subsidies, may need to increase reliance on solar, particularly thin-film solar, to fight its pollution woes.

In the mean time, despite turbulence in the stock markets, publicly listed solar names do not seem to be experiencing a slowdown, but are instead ramping up with expansions plans. SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWR) inked up new ingot, wafer and polysilicon deals; LDK Solar secured a three year wafer supply agreement; and China-based Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) set up its new U.S. head office in Phoenix, Arizona.

U.S. House Passes RPS and Extends Solar Tax Credits

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a tax bill (HR 969) Saturday that would extend renewable energy tax credits and encourage energy efficiency, paying for itself by repealing $16 billion in tax breaks to oil and gas companies. The House passed the tax provisions by a vote of 221-189. Earlier it had approved, 241-172, a companion energy package (HR 969) aimed at boosting energy efficiency and expanding use of biofuels, wind power and other renewable energy sources through a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). The two bills, passed at an unusual Saturday session as lawmakers prepared to leave town for their month-long summer recess, will be merged with legislation passed by the Senate in June.

HR 2776 extends renewable energy production tax credits to 2012, costing around $6.6 billion over 10 years, and extends a 30% tax credit for solar energy and fuel cell investment for eight years to 2016, costing around $563 million.

On one of the most contentious and heavily lobbied issues, the House voted for HR 969 to require investor-owned electric utilities nationwide to generate at least 11% of their electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind or biofuels and a maximum of 4% for energy efficiency for a combined 15% RPS, or perhaps more accurately a "REPS" (Renewable energy and Efficiency Portfolio Standard). More than 20 states have similar standards in place (see the Database for State Incentives for Renewable Energy or DSIRE) or under development, but proponents say a federal standard is needed to rapidly drive increased use of renewable energy.

With the Senate version of the legislation already complete (but lacking an RPS or solar tax credit provisions), passage in the House leads to a conference committee stage in the fall and possible final passage of a reconciled bill in late October or early November.

IBM Solar: the next "Big" thing

Big Blue is going Big Green. According to Neal Dikeman on Cleantechblog, all signs are pointing to IBM (NYSE: IBM) entering into the solar market in the next 18 months or so. Based on conversations with insiders and research which has uncovered (i) a number of vague references to solar research in recent press, (ii) sophisticated scientific journal articles on solar dating way back to 1978, and (iii) a string of solar-related patents filed by IBM, it looks like IBM is poised to leverage its competency in semiconductor manufacturing (reminiscent of Cypress Semiconductor's, NYSE: CY, foray into solar with its SunPower unit that was eventually spun off in the currently publicly listed SunPower Holdings, NASDAQ: SPWR) to achieve breakthroughs in PV manufacturing in advanced crystalline, thin-film/nano/CIGS technologies.

I am looking forward to it.

Israel-based Solel to build world largest solar farm

Spurred by state mandates for utilities to product 20% of generated power from renewable sources, California-based Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) entered into a landmark renewable energy agreement with Solel-MSP-1 (subsidiary of Israel-based Solel Thermal Systems) to purchase renewable energy from the Mojave Solar Park, to be constructed in California’s Mojave Desert. The project will deliver 553 megawatts of solar power, the equivalent of powering 400,000 homes, to PG&E’s customers in northern and central California. The Mojave Solar Park project is now the world’s largest single solar commitment.

The plant utilizes Solel’s patented and commercially-proven solar thermal parabolic trough technology to concentrate solar energy onto solar thermal receivers that contain a fluid that is heated and circulated used to generate steam that powers a turbine to produce electricity. When fully operational in 2011, the Mojave Solar Park plant will cover up to 6,000 acres, or nine square miles in the Mojave Desert. Solel is working closely with URS Corporation in the development of the Mojave Solar Park, which when commercial will rely on 1.2 million mirrors and 317 miles of vacuum tubing to capture the desert sun’s heat.

Perhaps the most environmentally satisfying aspect of the project is that the electricity generated by Mojave Solar Park will use some of the transmission infrastructure originally built for the now dormant coal-fired Mojave Generation Station to deliver the power to PG&E’s customers.

This Red Herring article considers the PG&E-Solel agreement as a signal of the of a CSP (concentrate solar power) boom, as PG&E seeks to make other utility-scale solar farm deals with the likes of BrightSource Energy, Green Volts and Cleantech America (here's an interesting expose on Cleantech America and the ambitions of this 2-year-old startup to capitalize on the solar farm boom).

Elsewhere, PG&E is also making aggressive moves in wind and wave energy, reports the Green Wombat.

New Efficiency Record of 42.8% Achieved

A Univeristy of Delware(UD)-led consortium has achieved a record-breaking combined solar cell efficiency of 42.8% from sunlight at standard terrestrial conditions, eclipsing the previous record of 40.7% set last December by Boeing's Spectrolab. In November 2005, the UD-led consortium received approximately $13 million in funding for the initial phases of the DARPA Very High Efficiency Solar Cell (VHESC) program to develop affordable portable solar cell battery chargers. As a result of the consortium's technical performance, DARPA is initiating the next phase of the program by funding the newly formed DuPont-University of Delaware VHESC Consortium to transition the lab-scale work to an engineering and manufacturing prototype model. This three-year effort could be worth as much as $100 million, including industry cost-share. According to the article in the first link above:

The consortium's goal is to create solar cells that operate at 50 percent in production, Barnett said. With the fresh funding and cooperative efforts of the DuPont-UD consortium, he said it is expected new high efficiency solar cells could be in production by 2010.

The highly efficient VHESC solar cell uses a novel lateral optical concentrating system that splits solar light into three different energy bins of high, medium and low, and directs them onto cells of various light sensitive materials to cover the solar spectrum. The system delivers variable concentrations to the different solar cell elements. The concentrator is stationary with a wide acceptance angle optical system that captures large amounts of light and eliminates the need for complicated tracking devices.

The VHESC would have immediate application in the high-technology military, which increasingly relies upon a variety of electronics for individual soldiers and the equipment that supports them. As well, it is hoped the solar cells will have a large number of commercial applications.

Separately, a US-Korea team announced an efficiency record for organic solar cells at 6.5%.