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Posted Jan 2, 2014, 5:52 PM
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BANNED
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: lodged against an abutment
Posts: 7,556
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US solar stocks rising at dawn of 2014
02. January 2014 | Top News, Markets & Trends, Investor news, Industry & Suppliers, Global PV markets, Features | By: Cheryl Kaften
Industry analysts expect the positive momentum seen in the solar sector throughout 2013 to continue in the new year. The U.S. Congress' tax reform could have long-term implications for U.S. investors and industry players, however.
Following a plunge in solar industry revenues in 2012, the "prodigal sun" returned during 2013 — with prices stabilizing, margins expanding and a better balance between supply and demand. Most analysts expect the positive momentum to continue into the new year. The only question is, how much growth should we expect?
Speaking to pv magazine, Angelo Zino, research analyst at S&P Capital IQ in New York City, says he expects solar industry revenue to increase by at least 10% in 2014. "This compares to our forecast for a low-single-digit rise in 2013 and follows significant declines in 2012 and 2011."
Pavel Molchanov, research analyst at Raymond James & Associates in Houston, concurs, but says investors will have to be smart and selective to turn a substantial profit during the next 12 months. "Easy money was made in 2013. It has been a bull market, with the Fed [U.S. Federal Reserve] printing currency and the global economy doing somewhat better." Yet Molchanov said that kind of growth would be harder to achieve this year. "It’s going to be more of a 'stock picker's market' in 2014."
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http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/deta...014_100013808/
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Georgia Power invites proposals for 500MW of utility-scale PV
By Lucy Woods - 02 January 2014, 13:01
In News
US electric utility Georgia Power has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for nearly 500MW of new utility-scale solar in the state.
Of the 500MW of capacity for which the company is inviting proposals, 70MW is to fulfil the Georgia Power Advanced Solar Initiative (GPASI), a purchase programme to contract 210MW solar capacity by November 2014. Another 425MW of the proposal is part of Georgia Power’s integrated resource plan.
The 500MW RFP process is to be conducted with energy consultancy, Accion Group, providing oversight and acting as independent evaluator.
Georgia Power is hosting a request for proposal bidders’ conference on 13 January and comments on the proposal will be accepted by Georgia Power until 31 January.
In July Georgia Power received approval for constructing 525MW of solar generation by 2016 after Georgia’s public service commission voted in favour of the solar development.
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http://www.pv-tech.org/news/georgia_...solar_proposal
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Brazilian state approves 123MW of solar developments in energy auction
By Lucy Woods - 02 January 2014, 11:29
In News
The Brazilian state of Pernambuco has approved 122.82MW of solar projects after hosting the country’s first solar-only tender auction.
Competing in the auction were 34 project bidders – six from Brazil along with others based in China, Germany, Italy and Spain.
The largest of this six successful tenders was won by Sowitec for a 30MW solar plant, closely followed by Sun Premier Holding Participações, which won a 29.75MW bid, and Kroma Comercializadora de Energia, which won 29.25MW. Concierge Cone S/A has been commissioned to build 22.82MW and Enel Green Power two 5MW projects.
The winning projects are to be built in Santa Maria da Boa Vista, Flores, Cabo de Santo Agostinho, Joaquim Nabucco and two in Tacaratu.
According to Pernambuco government, the solar auction attracted BRL597 million (US$253 million) in investments.
The successful bidders will be paid an average of BRL0.229 per kWh over a 20-year contract. The winning projects have to be installed within 18 months and are expected to generate thousands of construction jobs.
The governor of Pernambuco, Eduardo Campos, said: “It is vital that we make this kind of investment, which can consolidate a cluster of solar energy here. This auction points to an investment policy that values solar energy and renewable energy in the country, helping the sustainable development of Brazil.”
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http://www.pv-tech.org/news/brazil_g...energy_auction
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Top 10 PV Tech news stories of 2013
By Mark Osborne - 02 January 2014, 10:40
In Editors' Blog
In total, the PV Tech website received visitors from 225 countries around the world in 2013, according to Google Analytics. Here, in reverse order, are our top 10 most-read stories of 2013.
Top 10 story review
Two heavily reported subjects throughout the year included the ongoing ‘solar shakeout’ and the EU anti-dumping case against China. However, these did not dominate in the top 10 rankings.
On a company basis, some familiar names that had appeared in previous listings emerged again but in respect to very different subjects.
10 Exclusive: Error leaves at least 16 Chinese manufacturers in EU trade limbo
The tenth most popular story in 2013 did cover the EU anti-dumping case but was actually in respect to its conclusion and subsequent issue over PV Tech’s exclusive findings that a number of Chinese module producers that had been shipping products into the EU were mysteriously missing from the official EU documents.
Over 16 companies were not listed and therefore had not been provided new customs reference numbers, effectively stopping them from importing into the EU unless they paid import duties as they would also not receive a shipment quota that had been agreed with Chinese authorities.
Strangely, since the administrative ‘error’ was covered in early August, that situation remains in limbo. Even today there is also no public information on how the shipment quota system was shared out to those originally on the list.
9 World’s largest battery storage system to be installed in Japan
A subject never appearing before in the rankings and one of the emerging developments for the PV industry, battery storage was the ninth most popular story.
The story concerned news that Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) would install the world’s largest battery system at an electrical substation in Hokkaido, which had an expected storage capacity of around 60MWh. The project would be completed in March 2015.
8 Suntech executives reportedly detained by Chinese police
In eighth place was a just one of numerous stories this year about the Suntech saga and its subsidiary entering bankruptcy in China. Part of the solar shakeout series, the story was about news reports from China that Dr. Shi, the ousted executive chairman and then current CEO, David King, had both been detained by Chinese police, a week after the news broke of Wuxi Suntech being forced into bankruptcy proceedings by a swathe of Chinese banks.
The Suntech Power Holdings saga continues today, although with the Shunfeng rescue of Wuxi Suntech, a major part of the saga has potentially been concluded.
7 Bill Gates gives boost to renewables storage
Putting Bill Gates and storage in the same headline was bound to gain people’s attention and that was exactly what happened with the seventh ranked story when PV Tech covered the news that the billionaire Microsoft founder had been an investor in a US$35 million funding round of Aquion energy, a Pittsburgh-based firm that is developing a new water-based battery system.
Since the story broke in April, Aquion has only recently announced a micro-grid technology collaboration with Siemens.
6 PV module costs to fall to 36c per watt by 2017: GTM Research
A topic that in one form or another tends to garner high traffic year-on-year relates to product pricing and cost trends. This year the sixth most popular story concerned a longer range PV module costing forecast from GTM Research.
The market research firm noted that China's tier one PV module manufacturers were on track to cut production costs to US$0.36 (cents) per watt by the end of 2017, a reduction of 14 cents from costs at the end of 2012.
The expected cost reductions were attributed to technology innovations and the increased use of automation in the manufacturing process.
With the general expectation of a technology buy cycle sometime in 2014, it will be interesting to see if the industry actually meets or even exceeds this figure before the end of 2017.
5 SunPower sold out in Q1 2013
Providing hard facts on a recovering industry and a perfect example of key players’ transition to the PVEP business model, the fifth most popular centred focused on SunPower’s first quarter financial results released in early May. A significant turnaround in its financial situation and the revelation the company was effectively sold out, a situation that is expected to continue through 2014, set the industry scenario since then.
Later in the year, SunPower continued to mirror industry developments with the announcement that it would build a new leading-edge production plant for next generation ‘Maxeon’ solar cells.
4 Fire risk fiasco as Dutch government warns over 650,000 Scheuten Solar modules
The fourth ranked story is one that the industry should never repeat. Product design issues within Scheuten Solar’s module junction box had been behind a series of rooftop fires stretching back several years. The scale of the fault was attributed to around 650,000 ‘Multisol’ modules distributed between September 2009 and October 2010, primarily across Europe.
The exclusive and in-depth feature was a collaboration between PV Tech and sister website, Solar Power Portal UK (SPP UK), reporting comments from the experts dealing with aspects of the problem.
The story was by a wide margin the most read on the SPP UK website and combined with PV Tech’s traffic was the most read story of 2013 across the Solar Media website portfolio.
Not surprisingly, the owners of Scheuten Solar were later forced to close down the company as it proved impossible to repair the damage to the reformed company’s brand image.
3 SunPower lifts lid on new record 21.5% efficient X-Series solar modules
A topic that always attracts high traffic is that of record cell/module efficiencies. In the past SunPower has received a top 10 ranking based on this topic and returns this year at number three. SunPower claimed in April that its new X-Series modules provided approximately 8 to 10% more energy per rated watt when compared with conventional crystalline-based modules and had a conversion efficiency of 21.5%.
2 Bosch shuts down solar division; total loss amounts to €2.4 billion
The second most viewed story featured another solar shakeout development, this time in regards to Bosch exiting the sector by the end of 2013. The rapid and significant price declines due to massive overcapacity in the industry, despite its own efforts to reduce production costs, were given as the key reasons for the industry exit.
The news reverberated around the world and not least in Europe, especially at a time when every European-based manufacturer was feeling the financial effects of more than two years of fierce competition from China-based rivals.
Recently some good news has meant that the production facilities and staff will be transferred to SolarWorld with the hope it will be a new start and boost to regaining its market competitiveness. The story on that development is waiting to be written.
1 First Solar to manufacture copper-based crystalline silicon solar cells
Finally, we have arrived at the most popular story on PV Tech in 2013. Normally, we get a sense of the big stories and certainly these appear in this year’s rankings but it was a surprise that the top story garnered significantly more page view traffic than even the higher ranked stories this year.
The story literarily rocked the industry when First Solar, the world’s leading thin-film manufacturer and PVEP, announced the acquisition of little-known start-up, TetraSun and would be aggressively ramping its copper-based advanced monocrystalline cell technology.
Though not a seismic shift in First Solar’s module manufacturing, as CdTe remains a central part of its business model, it could prove seismic for its tier one rivals in the future. The company is already placing equipment orders for the new venture and we should gain further insight next year, which is obviously going to be of great interest to readers.
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http://www.pv-tech.org/editors_blog/...tories_of_2013
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Massive Minnesota solar project preferred over gas plants
By Joanna Foster on 2 January 2014
Climate Progress
The largest-ever proposed solar project in Minnesota received a powerful legal boost Tuesday, when administrative law judge Eric Lipman recommended Geronimo Energy’s Aurora Solar Project above five other proposals that utility Xcel Energy submitted to state regulators as part of a competitive bidding process. The other projects considered were almost exclusively for new natural gas generators.
Xcel, one of Minnesota’s biggest utilities, needs to add an additional 550 megawatts of new electricity generation by 2020 to meet predicted rising energy demands. And solar, according to Lipman, is the best deal. The Geronimo proposal is for a 100-megawatt distributed solar project, with 20-25 sites in 18 counties. Each solar park would range from 2-10 megawatts. The largest of the Geronimo solar parks would be five times bigger than the state’s largest solar array in Slayton, Minnesota.
In his report, Lipman wrote that “The Geronimo project will have numerous socioeconomic benefits, minimal impacts on the environment and best supports Minnesota’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.” He also called the Geronimo project “the most reasonable and prudent alternative to meet Xcel’s near-term needs.”
“We feel like the judge found that our proposal was effective in a number of ways,” Betsy Engelking, Vice President of Geronimo told SCTimes. “It’s “the first time that solar’s gone head-to-head with gas facilities in this sort of a proposal and has received this sort of a recommendation.”
Geronimo’s Aurora Solar Project would receive no state or utility subsidies, but would qualify for a federal investment tax credit. It is expected to cost $250 million. If approved, construction would begin in 2015.
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http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/mass...al-boost-70923
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CES 2014: Ford to introduce solar-powered hybrid car
Published on 2 January 2014
Ford Motor Company announced today the C-MAX Solar Energi Concept, a first-of-its-kind sun-powered vehicle with the potential to deliver the best of what a plug-in hybrid offers -- without depending on the electric grid for fuel.
Instead of powering its battery from an electrical outlet, Ford C-MAX Solar Energi Concept harnesses the power of the sun by using a special concentrator that acts like a magnifying glass, directing intense rays to solar panels on the vehicle roof.
The result is a concept vehicle that takes a day's worth of sunlight to deliver the same performance as the conventional C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid, which draws its power from the electric grid. Ford C-MAX Energi gets a combined best miles per gallon equivalent in its class, with EPA-estimated 108 MPGe city and 92 MPGe highway, for a combined 100 MPGe. By using renewable power, Ford C-MAX Solar Energi Concept is estimated to reduce the annual greenhouse gas emissions a typical owner would produce by four metric tons.
C-MAX Solar Energi Concept, which will be shown at the 2014 International CES in Las Vegas, is a collaborative project of Ford, SunPower Corp. and Georgia Institute of Technology.
The C-MAX Solar Energi Concept debuts as Ford caps a record year of electrified vehicle sales.
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http://www.solarnovus.com/ford-annou...car_N7328.html
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Credit Suisse: Renewables to meet 85% of US energy demand growth
By Zachary Shahan on 2 January 2014
Clean Technica
Credit Suisse on December 20 released a report with some quite bullish projections regarding renewable energy growth and generation in the United States, which someone in the solar industry kindly passed on to me. Here’s the short summary:
Our take: We see an opportunity for renewable energy to take an increasing share of total US power generation, coming in response to state Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and propelled by more competitive costs against conventional generation. We can see the growth in renewables being transformative against conventional expectations with renewables meeting the vast majority of future power demand growth, weighing on market clearing power prices in competitive power markets, appreciably slowing the rate of demand growth for natural gas from the power sector, and requiring significant investment in new renewables. What percentage of future growth does Credit Suisse say might come from renewables? About 85%.
Renewables will meet most of US demand growth. We estimate that ~85% of future demand growth for power through 2025 (including the impact of coal plant retirements) could be met by renewable generation with compliance to the existing 30 mandatory and 8 voluntary RPS programs. From this we would see over 100 GW of new renewable capacity additions with wind and solar market share more than doubling from 2012 to 2025. Other key points are that falling wind and solar costs make them competitive with natural gas, even ignoring externalities. As a result, Credit Suisse has cut its natural gas projections considerably. “We estimate renewables slowing the rate of natural gas demand growth from power generation to <0.5 bcf/d through 2020 versus our prior estimate of 1.0-1.2 bcf/d even when taking into account planned coal plant shutdowns and assumed nuclear plant retirements.”
I think this report and the revisions implicitly highlight something very interesting that is going on in the energy industry. Renewable energy costs are primarily based on the cost of the technologies themselves, while fossil fuel costs are largely based on the fuel sources. As renewable energy grows, the technology costs come down. The opposite is true for fossil fuels. Forecasts should take this into account, but they routinely seem to underestimate renewable technology cost drops, and thus also underestimate renewable energy growth. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and others that are a bit better at these projections are quickly shifting their forecasts to catch up with the renewable energy revolution we’ve been seeing. This new report from Credit Suisse analysts is certainly one of the most positive I’ve seen. The title of the first section says it all: “Renewables Are Economic and Disruptive to Conventional Markets.”
Credit Suisse analysts see Renewable Energy Standards (RES) as driving much of the coming growth, but they aren’t shy about saying (repeatedly) that renewables are also now cost competitive, and that technology improvements just keep advancing their prospects.
“We think old-line arguments against renewables – too expensive, too intermittent, too remote – will continue to fade, allowing a resource base that is underappreciated in the market but is positioned to have a broad impact on power and energy markets.”
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http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/cred...enewables-2025
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TransCanada acquires additional Ontario power plant from Canadian Solar
BERTRAND MAROTTE
The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Jan. 02 2014, 8:19 AM EST
TransCanada Corp. is acquiring another solar power facility as part of the ongoing expansion of its presence in the renewable energy sector.
Calgary-based TransCanada said on Thursday it has acquired Mississippi Mills in eastern Ontario from Canadian Solar Solutions Inc. The facility is a newly built 10-megawatt installation west of Ottawa.
The deal is part of a previously announced agreement with Canadian Solar to buy a total of nine Ontario solar facilities as TransCanada expands its carbon-free portfolio while also pushing ahead with higher-profile projects such as the Keystone XL and Energy East oil pipelines.
The controversial $5.3-billion (U.S.) Keystone XL initiative to move Alberta crude to Texas refineries is still waiting for the green light from Washington.
TransCanada has already acquired from Canadian Solar the facilities known as Brockville 1, Brockville 2 and Burritts Rapids.
Total cost of the nine photovoltaic facilities – with a combined capacity of 86 megawatts, enough to power some 17,000 homes – is about $500-million.
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...ticle16167364/
Last edited by amor de cosmos; Jan 2, 2014 at 6:20 PM.
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