Editors’ Blog

A seasonal end of year rush to beat the changes set to take place on tariffs in Germany is on, which is potentially being fuelled further by the continued speculation over further cuts in the FiT, due to the new German Government. Germany was expected to be the largest market in 2009 for new PV installations, after the collapse of the Spanish market last year. However, a prolonged winter and the continued fall-out from the financial crisis meant that installations in Germany may not have met earlier forecasts. 

The Solar America Cities Program was launched as one of the biggest efforts at the Department of Energy aimed towards the adoption of renewable energy in a country with one of the largest carbon boot prints in the world. The program, which saw partnership with 25 cities, made for a huge amount of success as 40 individual solar projects were eventually erected. The time has now come for the DOE to build on this success as it brings out a must-have resource for prospective cities: 'Solar Power in Your Community: A Guide for Local Governments.' Speaking with Charlie Hemmeline, head of the project based at the Department, I delved beneath the surface of the next stage of the Solar America Cities Program.

Not all the news from First Solar’s second-quarter conference call was good. Granted, the CdTe thin film leader impressed again with its continued benchmark performance on productivity, lowest cost per watt and revenue generation, however the sombre note regarded pricing pressure seen from the traditional c-Si module manufacturers.

Cabot Consultants, the national search firm with practice areas in technology, clean tech, and renewable energy, has announced its first annual list of "Women to Watch in Solar Energy."

Take any market research firm’s data on end-user demand for solar modules and compare that with manufacturing supply and there is a massive gap to the negative, pushing prices lower from bare wafers to modules. Last week, Q-Cells binned its forecast for revenue for 2009, citing continued lack of demand and falling prices due to the competitive landscape caused by overcapacity.

After a slow start, this year’s PV Industry Forum, the traditional opening conference of Intersolar Week in Munich, finally got going during the last session of the day with a resounding call to action from none other than Q-Cells’ boss, Anton Milner. The conference opened with the usual slides and the usual suspects giving their views of the overall solar market. The obligatory emerging market was given lip service--this time it was India--while the rest of the presentations mostly failed to engage the audience in a meaningful way. Things changed during the afternoon....

News that amorphous thin-film competitors Sunfilm and Sontor are to merge due to the competitive landscape, overcrowded market, and the dominance of First Solar-- both from a capacity and conversion efficiency standpoint--could be the first of many such consolidations, as the solar market stalls because of the global current economic climate.

Congress has passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 with the support of senators Obama and McCain. The news is welcomed by the solar industry but unusually was met by traders with a plunge in the value of solar stocks. While most will focus on the financial implications of the bailout bill the solar industry can finally plan ahead...

23rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition held in Valencia, Spain last week was one of the best events I have attended in over 15 years of attending trade shows in most parts of the world.