Power Plants

Solar stocks in Chinese companies have been under increased pressure following reports that SolarWorld’s anti-dumping case against Chinese OEMs is progressing to the European Union. Jefferies has predicted that if the anti-dumping verdict is passed, it will be negative towards Chinese cell/module suppliers, positive to Taiwanese cell suppliers, SunPower and First Solar and neutral to poly and wafer suppliers (assuming the scope is largely limited to cells as in the US).

The latest global PV inverter market report from IMS Research paints a mixed business environment for the sector that has more than 150 active suppliers. Although having defended reasonably well against price declines, compared to the rest of the supply chain, the market research firm is forecasting inverter sector revenues to only increase by 3% in 2012, while shipments increased nearly 25%.

After a rebound in polysilicon sales in the first quarter of 2012, Wacker’s polysilicon sales declined 22% in the second quarter due to customers delaying or reducing delivery quantities. Sales in the second quarter reached €286.8 million, down from €366.6 million in the prior quarter. However, the major reason for the sales decline was due to the substantial reduction in polysilicon prices, which will also result in lower sales being achieved this year than in 2011, according to the company.

China Sunergy announced that it had recently signed a 7.8MW solar modules sales contract with the energy unit of Urban Group Australia, Urban Group Energy. The solar modules are scheduled to complete delivery by the end of August. China Sunergy noted that during Q1 2012, Australia accounted for 18% of its total shipments.

Working with solar investor Sistema Solare, SolFocus has completed a 1.25MW solar park in Italy. The project spans two sites in central Italy, one in Aveani and the other in Savini, which combined are said to form one of the largest CPV power plants in the country. The CPV plants were developed and designed by Ren It and built by EPC company Delta.

Sitting in the middle of the San Francisco Bay is one of the most iconic US prisons, Alcatraz, and while it hasn’t served as an operating prison for several decades, it does now serve as host to a 307kW PV system. Developed by the National Park Service (NPS) and the U. S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) the solar project brings clean energy to another national landmark.

Terna responsible for developing the national electricity transmission grid has received authorization to shut off distributed generation systems in case of emergency.

Having broken ground last year, with an investment of US$6.6 million from the coffers of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade Aid Programme, Tonga’s first and largest grid-connected solar park is to go online on July 24. The new solar power plant at the Popua Power Station, south-east of the island capital of Nuku’alofa on Tongatapu will have a total capacity of 1.3MW and will be supplied with Conergy Australia’s mounting systems.

PV module encapsulant materials supplier, STR Holdings has warned it will not meet previously guided second quarter 2012 revenue expectations. The company previously guided second quarter sales to be flat with the first quarter, being in the range of US$31-US$33 million, but revised this down approximately US$25 million. Management said that demand was weaker than expected.

A consortium of seven partners supported by €13.8 million in financing from the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme for European Research and Innovation are to build a solid state hydrogen storage plant designed to balance power supply and demand of renewable energy installed in the Puglia region of Italy, which employs around 3.5GW of solar, wind and biomass energy resources.