Financial & Legal

Critical information and insight source, IHS, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire iSuppli. The transaction, which is subject to closing conditions contained in the agreement document, is expected to be completed by November 15.

An ambitious plan, which hasn’t been without implementation issues and which has stretched the financial structure of REC Group, is finally bearing fruit according to key executives of the company. At a lengthy investor and analyst seminar being held in Singapore, coinciding with the grand opening of the company's €1.3 billion plus integrated module production facility, enigmatic CEO Ole Enger claimed REC was on track to deliver a companywide all inclusive cost of €0.97/watt by the fourth quarter 2011. Excluding equipment and building depreciation at the new plant, the cash cost target for next year would be €0.74/watt.

First Reserve has closed its financial facilities agreement for the Rovigo solar plant at €276 million. The private equity firm bought the 70MW PV plant from Sun Edison, with whom they had previously established a joint venture, this past September. Banco Santander, Unicredit Corporate Banking, Credit Agricole, Dexia Crediop, Natixis and Societe Generale were additional lenders with First Reserve for the financing agreement.

Regardless of what market research data you rely on, the analysts agree: the photovoltaics market is expected to grow considerably in 2010. Even the most hawkish of forecasts would therefore expect PV installations to almost double from 2009, creating a demand somewhere near 14GW in 2010. According to Bernreuter Research, which specializes in tracking the polysilicon market, polysilicon production in 2010 should be sufficient to produce the equivalent of 17GW of c-Si modules.

3W Power Holdings, the holding company of AEG Power Solutions (AEG PS), has reported its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2010. While Q3'10 is typically a weak quarter cyclically for AEG PS, due to traditionally slower trading in Europe in August, the solar segment still came out on top.

Taking on the task of spreading the word of the UK’s potential in the solar market, Solar Power UK organised the hugely successful conference on October 18-19. The conference, the theme of which was “Enabling the UK Solar Market for 2011,” drew over 450 delegates from all facets of the solar PV industry, including installers, suppliers, manufacturers, investment companies, and members of the media.

In the recently published eighth ‘Annual Photovoltaics Status Report’ the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has reported a ‘massive’ increase in photovoltaics production capacity is underway and that worldwide production capacity for solar cells would exceed 38GW by the end of 2010. The report also notes that production volumes in 2008 increased by 80% as compared to 2007, reaching 7.3GW of potential output with China, Taiwan and Europe all adding significant capacity.

Global solar inverter shipments are expected to surpass 23.3 million units by 2014, up by a factor of nine from 2.6 million in 2010, according to a new report from iSuppli Corp. Revenue will subsequently increase to US$8.9 billion in 2014, up from US$5.3 billion in 2010. This would result in solar inverters sales becoming one of the highest-volume ruggedized electronic systems sold, according to report author Greg Sheppard. Despite such soaring demand, the average price per watt for inverters worldwide will decline by 13.5% this year. In particular, Asian suppliers are trying to drive prices down with lower costs, Sheppard noted, even though they have been challenged to deliver bankability.

Setting the lowest cost per watt production figures in the photovoltaics industry while ramping production past the 1GW level in 2009, should prove to be the key reasons why First Solar becomes the largest solar cell producer in 2009, leapfrogging Q-Cells and Sharp for the first time. According to market research firm, iSuppli Corp, First Solar is set to produce more than double the 503MW it made in 2008 and increase its market share as well as be responsible for nearly a third of global installations this year!

With approximately 15 entrants wanting to stake a claim in the emerging solar microinverter and DC-DC power optimization market, rapid growth is required to avoid failures. According to a new report from IMS Research, the market is forecasted to generate more than US$1.5 billion in revenues over the next five years with device shipments growing 100% per year, totalling more than 16 million units. As expected the key market will be residential, offering power output defence from shading and inverter failures, according to the market research firm.