Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) has announced that the auction date for the sale of United Solar Ovonics (USO) will be put back to 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) on May 8, 2012. The auction was previously set for 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) on April 24, 2012 following the company’s entry into Chapter 11 proceedings in the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in February 2012.
Solarhybrid Israel, subsidiary of Solarhybrid, recently sold 201MWp of project rights, which it originally bought in January for US$2,391,705, to Summit Energy of Israel. Under the agreement, current liabilities of Solarhybrid Israel amounted to US$398,617.50, while earn-out-payments in connection with the acquisition of the project rights totaled US$5,580,645.
Yingli Green Energy Holding and China Development Bank have signed a framework agreement for US$324 million in funding according to a report from Bloomberg. The funding will be used for a trade platform in Hong Kong in order to import raw materials.
Solar collector manufacturer SkyFuel has announced that it now offers insurance on their product warranties. After a year of negotiations, German reinsurer Munich Re has agreed to back SkyFuel’s warranties.
In the first quarter of 2012, financial investment in clean energy has been the weakest since 2009, states Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The figures published demonstrate investment was down 28% from Q4 2011 to just US$27 billion – 22% lower than the equivalent figure in the first quarter of last year. This includes venture capital, private equity, public markets and asset finance, but excludes small-scale projects and corporate and government RD&D.
RWE is supposedly looking to invest in solar power plants, citing solar module prices as one of its key determining factors. According to Bloomberg, up until now Germany’s second-biggest utility, which owns a stake in Spain’s Andasol 3 solar thermal power plant, has distanced itself from investing in PV generation because of what it considered too high of a cost for the technology. However, now that prices for solar modules are considerably lower than in the past, the utility is taking a second look.
PV inverter manufacturer, Satcon Technology has said that new orders have increased 130% in the first quarter of 2012 compared to previous quarter, reaching a bookings value of approximately US$45 million. The company said the quarter had been the most successful bookings period in four quarters, with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.9:1.
Specialist PV system monitoring firm, Solare Datensysteme said that sales had reached almost €7 million in the first quarter of 2012, a 118% increase over the same quarter in 2011. The company guided sales in the second quarter of 2012 would be inline with the first quarter. The increase in sales was said to be due to sales success in a wider number of countries, including Canada and the US.
In a joint venture, NYSE Euronext and research company Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) have developed three new sector indices covering solar and wind energy as well as energy smart technologies (EST). Each index is produced using the different global stock market values of 70–200 industry companies, and a minimum threshold exposure to applicable renewable energy sectors is also calculated.
PV project developer, Premier Power reported 2011 full-year revenue results of US$70.2 million, including fourth quarter revenue of US$15.5 million. Fourth quarter revenue was down 66% or US$30.6 million from US$46.1 million achieved in the same period in 2010. Full-year results were down 19%, compared to 2010, while non-GAAP operating loss increased to US$3.8 million in 2011, up from US$2.8 million in 2010. This decrease in revenue was said to be mainly due to project delays in Bulgaria that were pushed into the first quarter of 2012.
