Financial & Legal

IDC Energy Insights has launched three new global-research projects focused on quantifying and tracking the rapidly-growing Smart Meter, Photovoltaic Module, and Solar Inverter markets. To help man the new programmes, five analysts will be joining IDC's Worldwide Tracker team, which will be managed by Ryan Reith.

One of the key low-cost PV module manufacturers, Yingli Green is also fast becoming one of the largest suppliers of high-efficiency modules.

SunPower sees substantial growth in store in fiscal year 2011, with annual revenues expected to range between $2.65 billion and $2.85 billion as well as PV cell production of 900-945MW at its three fabrication facilities. The company’s already issued its 2010 guidance, which forecasts revenues of $2.15 billion-$2.25 billion and cell production of 570-580MW. The company also said it has signed a deal to sell the Solare Roma PV power plant in Italy.

Lux Research has released a new report, “Module Cost Structure Breakdown: Can Thin-Film Survive the Crystalline Silicon Onslaught?”, which compares multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) with thin-film silicon (TF-Si), cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) on a US$/W basis in order to see which of the technologies will have a long-term cost advantage on the module level.

Etrion has released its interim consolidated financial statements and related management discussion and analysis for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010 and 2009. Highlights for the third quarter include closing the acquisition of the 24MW first tranche of the 33MW Montalto solar park in Italy - subsequently closing the final 9MW tranche - recording US$7.0 million in revenues and completing a US$15 million private placement of shares to meet Toronto Stock Exchange listing requirements.

SunPower has revealed that it’s new headquarters will remain based in San Jose, CA. The company is to relocate to an existing three-building site on Rio Robles next year in order to accommodate long-term growth plans. By renovating the buildings, with a rooftop solar system and solar carport alongside other renewable features, SunPower aims to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification.

Despite an ongoing ramp of its Malaysia-based Fab 3 cell production plant that will increase its megawatt production by 65% in 2011, Tom Werner, CEO of SunPower, noted in its third-quarter financial conference call that demand for its products exceeded supply both in the second-half of this year but also going into 2011.

Describing business conditions as an ‘ongoing order boom in the solar sector,’ centrotherm photovoltaics posted revenue of €458.4 million for the first nine months of this year, a 22.3% increase compared with the same period a year ago. The company reported a total inflow of €707.7 million of new orders, compared with the prior-year period of €472.1 million. However, revenue fell in its thin film module segment to only €11.9 million in the period.

Feed-in tariff changes are to negatively impact photovoltaic (PV) installations in France, Belgium, Spain and Czech Republic in 2011, according to a new report from iSuppli Corp. However, the robust and stronger than expected growth of the German market for 2010 and 2011 will keep overall installations figures up compared with previous years. The market research firm expects worldwide installations in 2010 will amount to 15.8GW up from iSuppli’s previous outlook of 14.2GW, representing 118.7% growth from 7.2GW installed in 2009. In 2011 installations will amount to 19.3GW, down slightly from its previous forecast of 20.2GW.

One of the biggest pressures that the solar module industry faces is the ability to produce a solar module at a lower cost. Due to this demand in pricing, IMS Research has concluded that over 70% of module production capacity is made in Asia as of 2010’s fourth quarter. The trend to move production to Asia isn’t a passing one as IMS foresees that by the end of 2011, over 75% of the world’s PV production will take place in Asia.