Total has signed an agreement with EDF ENR to acquire all of Tenesol’s operations outside of France’s overseas departments and territories, of which it already owns 50%. Tenesol’s operations in the French overseas departments and territories would continue to be equally owned by the Total Group and EDF ENR.
In future weeks, SunPower will almost certainly be marking April 12 as not only an eventful day, but a successful one as well. Not only did the company celebrate the opening of its Milpitas module manufacturing plant, but also announced that the US Department of Energy (DOE) has offered the company a conditional loan guarantee for its California Valley Solar Ranch power plant.
Tigo Energy has secured investment of up to US$20 million to help expand its manufacturing, international sales and logistics divisions and meet rising demand for its Maximizer Management Unit.
Continuing its PV equipment company consolidation attempts, Meyer Burger will acquire Roth & Rau in a friendly takeover. Meyer Burger said it had already acquired a total of 11.3% of the share capital of Roth & Rau AG from the founders and key shareholders. Meyer Burger is offering bearer shares in Roth & Rau at €22 per share in cash, a premium of around 41% compared with the volume-weighted average share price of the past three months. The total deal is worth approximately €356.6 million.
French utility EDF will acquire the outstanding 50% share in EDF Energies Nouvelles after the renewable energy firm accepted an offer of €40 per outstanding share. This represents a premium of 10.4% on the share closing price on April 7 and a 23.8% premium compared to the daily volume-weighted average over the last six months.
Global research firm Cleantech has revealed that global investment in green technology for Q1 2011 totalled US$2.57 billion, with the solar sector accounting for US$641 million. Investment came from 159 companies in North America, Europe, China and India, and was up 13% on the figure of US$2.28 billion from the same period last year.
Alstom will invest a further US$75 million in BrightSource Energy, adding to its original commitment of US$55 million in May 2010. The companies signed a partnership agreement in August 2010 to provide fully integrated solar thermal power plants around the world.
Capital Dynamics and Tangent Energy Solutions have signed a joint development agreement, which will see the two companies working together on commercial-scale solar energy projects throughout the United States. Under the agreement, Capital Dynamics will arrange the funding necessary to build, own and operate existing and future solar projects developed by Tangent.
Although there were no specifics mentioned in the financial forecast for 2011 provided by Q-Cells as it announced full year financial results, sales are set to be at around the same level as last year. As previously reported, Q-Cells sales increased by 70% to €1.35 billion in 2010. In its annual report, 2011 sales guidance is between €1.3 billion and €1.5 billion.
Coming off the strong year that was 2010 in the global solar photovoltaic world, Solarbuzz’s Quarterly report has countered that 2011 may be a rockier road. The research company is estimating that Germany’s first quarter 2011 end-market demand for solar PV has been performing at less than 50% of what it was in the first quarter of 2010 and maintains that even though module manufacturers worldwide have been reducing prices, the market has yet to feel a positive effect.
