Green World Investor

Solar Craze in India as Coal Equipment Supplier and Jeweler acquire Photovoltaic Companies

Abhishek Shah — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 08:01:20 +0000

India's Solar PowerIndustry is starting to see some M&A with both domestic and foreign companies buying smaller firms. While the biggest M&A story is that of Tata Power acquiring the stake in Tata BP Solar, other firms without any grounding in the energy industry are too getting in. Now a Coal Equipment and EPC company Tecpro is getting into the solar energy business by acquiring a small solar lighting and heating company Eversun.Tecpro Systemsis primarily focused on the Power Sector Space.It is a leader in the ash handling and material handling systems and is currently diversifying into becoming a turnkey provider in this segment.Like other infrastructure players it has seen amazing growth in the last 3 years at around 70%+.The growth has been fantastic both on the topline and the bottomline.The 2300 crore Order book provides some comfort over the next year’s revenues or so.The Power Sector in India particularly the Thermal Power Plants are expected to see an explosive growth period.Steel and Cement sectors are also growing strongly.With Tecpro Systems focusing on these 3 segments,it should be able to maintain a good growth trajectory in the future years as well

Small Solar Developers getting acquired in India as Sector starts Maturing

Abhishek Shah — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 05:42:32 +0000

The Indian Solar Power Industry is starting to see some Solar M&A activity pick up as the sector starts maturing. The Indian Solar Energy Industry starting picking up pace in 2009 with the advent of the first phase of the solar federal subsidy which envisaged putting up 20 GW by 2022 (a figure which I think is too low btw) . A large number of companies entered the fray many of which were small . These companies hoped to profit from selling the licenses rather than being serious players. Many of these companies could not do so as the reverse auction process was quite competitive. A large number of companies also got started to take advantage of individual state subsidies from governments in Gujarat.

Solarworld Loses Marketshare Massively to Chinese Solar Panel Producers in 2011

Abhishek Shah — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:37:19 +0000

Solarworld which is the biggest solar panel company from Germany lost marketshare to the Chinese companiees in 2011 . The company which has been at the forefront of leading anti-dumping charges against import of Chinese made solar modules into the USA, lost substantial amounts of money. Solarworld had earlier closed its panel making facility in California. The company sold lesser number of solar panels in 2011 compared to 2010 despite the global solar market increasing by 30-40% . With only around 800 MW of shipments , Solarworld has only 3-4% of the global marketshare compared to 10% for bigger Chinese rivals.

ToughStuff to sell Durable Solar Panels to African Poor under Business Call to Action (Bcta) by UN Development Programme

Abhishek Shah — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:33:41 +0000

Solar Energy is one of the best ways to bring energy to the disenfranchised poor in Africa and Asia which have no access to electricity and energy. Note Solar Panel prices have fallen by almost 90% in the last 4-5 years making solar energy much more accessible to the poor . Solar Panels can be now be bought at less than $200 which makes them affordable to large sections of the poor. They having stopped costing a ton in subsidy money given the low prices. Besides massive capacities exist in China and other places in Asia which can churn out solar panels in the hundreds of millions.

Why German has done more to Fight Climate Change than any other Nation

Abhishek Shah — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:06:38 +0000

Critics have claimed that Germany has spent $130 billion in solar subsidies to provide only 0.3% of its electricity. This is a shallow and ignorant argument at its worst. The critics from all over the world cite figures and statistics without going into the deeper implications. Germany has in the last 5 years made solar energy reach the poorest people in the world . The country's subsideis have made large solar companies lower costs and improve technology at a rapid pace to keep up with the lowered subsidies. Solar Panels which were sold for $4/watt in 2008 are solar for 80c/watt now. A truly remarkable story in Energy which has been missed the the fossil fuel funded hacks in media. For the last few centuries man has been trying to harness solar energy at reasonable costs but has failed to make a big impression. Germany in the last 5 years has made a huge and lasting impact as solar energy will go from strenght to strenght ..

China’s Smaller Polysilicon Companies go Bankrupt as Price Goes Below Cost

Abhishek Shah — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:32:13 +0000

China which is the world's largest provider of solar panels made from crystalline silicon is seeing a large number of smaller polysilicon companies go bankrupt or stop production. The reason is that for many of the smaller companies the price of polysilicon is $25-30/kg while the costs are $40-50/kg .This means that the smaller companies are making massive losses with the production of each kg of polysilicon. Note Polysilicon is a commodity industry like the memory industry and goes through periodic ups and downs when prices can go much below costs. In recent years a large number of companies set up polysilicon plants to benefit from the massive growth in the solar panel demand in Europe. However a massive glut in 2011 led the prices to fall across the supply chain of silicon solar panels. Poly prices fell from a high of $100/kg to $25/kg a drop of almost 75% in one year. This has made many of the smaller poly plants in China stop production as the price is below variable costs. The bigger producers like GCL , Renesola and Daqo have lower costs at around $25-30/kg which means they are breaking even . However for smaller companies the situation is dire as massive capacity expansion by the top polysilicon producers will continue in 2012 keeping prices at around the same level.

Solar Panels,Tiles,Lanterns and Inverters Wanted

Abhishek Shah — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:25:45 +0000

This Post is aimed towards solar panel and inverter manufacturers who may want to supply the following readers below. This Post will be regularly be updated with more wanted advertizement so solar panel suppliers should regularly watch this space. Wanted 1) kindly tell me 200,w solar panel and 1000w inverter lowest price,also inform me price [...]

China Rules the Wind Market with 40% of Global Demand and Market Leading Companies

Abhishek Shah — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 05:39:36 +0000

China continues to rule the global wind energy market generating around 40% of the global demand in 2011 with 18 GW of wind turbine installations. The dominance of the Chinese is underlined from the fact that they installed 3 times more wind energy than USA which is a bigger electricity market. China also dominates in supplying wind equipment to the global market. Its companies like Sinovel, Mingyang and Goldwind are starting to win marketshare in overseas market .These companies which are trying to grow outside to escape the glut in the domestic market have won some major overseas orders.

Renewable Energy Jobs become Less Attractive with Crashing Profits and Stocks

Abhishek Shah — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 04:26:24 +0000

Renewable Energy Industry is going through some of the toughest times yet with profits and share prices of Green Companies crashing. 2011 was a horrendous year with the biggest solar company by value First Solar being the worst performer in S&P 500. Many of the biggest wind and solar companies were mired in red ink as competition and oversupply from China led to green indicies falling by more than 50% . Many of the biggest companies collapsed and many others are on lifeline.

List of Earth’s Largest Wind Energy Countries – China Leads with 60 GW of Wind Electricity Capacity

Abhishek Shah — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:44:29 +0000

Wind Energy is the largest renewable energy source in the globe right now (if you don't count in hydro and nuclear energy). The total installed wind energy capacity exceeds the solar and biomass capacity by quite a margin at over 200 GW . The recent surge in wind energy installations has been from China which put up almost 40-50% of the global wind turbine installations in 2010 and 2011. Now China has surpassed every other country to become the largest wind energy country in the world with over 60 GW. While Europe earlier led by Spain, Denamark and Germany used to lead in wind capacity, they have been comprehensively overtaken by the Middle Kingdom in the last couple of years. USA comes in next but still far below its potential while the rest of the world has started to pick up now. India is the 5th largest country and has been steadily putting up around 2-3 GW of wind capacity each year.