While other countries are arguing about their energy resources, policies and capabilities, Germany breaks the solar capacity record.

Carsten Koernig, the Managing Director of the German Solar Industry Association (BSW), told Reuters that this late surge of photovoltaic installations “would take the forecast past last month’s increase to 2.5 GW from 2 GW.”

Image Credit: http://www.solarpowerrocks.com

Some years ago, the German government initiated a plan to promote solar cells through feed-in-tariffs and other incentives. These incentives and the lower prices have led to a boom in demand for photovaltaics which in spite of  the financial crisis and fear of looming changes in German laws, it continues to rise.

Germany, is the world’s leader in photovoltaic which turns sunlight into electricity; it now has more than a third of the world’s total capacity – 5.3 GW (gigawatt) of 15 GW. During 2009 alone close to 3 GW will be installed.

This is a world record for installed solar capacity in one country during one year.

The slumping prices have hurt some companies. Two of the two biggest – Q-Cells and Conergy — both posted third quarter losses but aim to return to profit in 2010.

Sources and further information: Reuters,  Solar investors will see stronger 2010, say analysts, Reduced subsidies to renewable energy in Germany

Gefunden bei mdr.de:

Thalheim

Q-Cells informiert Mitarbeiter über Entlassungen

Q-Cells hat am Montag seine 2.500 Mitarbeiter über die bevorstehenden Entlassungen informiert. Das Solarunternehmen will allen Betroffenen bis Dienstag Bescheid geben. Am Stammsitz Thalheim sollen bis Ende des Jahres 500 Stellen wegfallen.

Auf Betriebsversammlungen stellte die Geschäftsleitung ihren Sozialplan vor. Viele der betroffenen Beschäftigten werden in sogenannte Transfergesellschaften wechseln. Dort erhalten sie Fortbildungen, damit sie sich besser auf andere Stellen bewerben können. Außerdem hat das Unternehmen mit dem Betriebsrat einen Härtefallfonds und Abfindungsregelungen vereinbart.

Betriebsratschef Uwe Schmorl sagte, von den Entlassungen seien gleichermaßen junge wie ältere Mitarbeiter aus der Produktion und der Verwaltung betroffen. Der Solarkonzern wolle seine jetzige Altersstruktur beibehalten.

Preisverfall löste Krise aus

Q-Cells war wegen des Preisverfalls bei Solarzellen in Schwierigkeiten geraten. Vor allem in China wird wesentlich billiger produziert. In den ersten neun Monaten des Jahres schrieb Q-Cells einen Verlust von über 900 Millionen Euro.

Die Geschäftsleitung des Unternehmens erwartet auch weiterhin, dass der Markt für Solarzellen umkämpft bleibt. Einen Ausweg aus der Krise sollen neue Technologien bieten. Vorstandschef Anton Milner setzt auf eine neue Solarzelle, die eine höhere Leistung bei gleichzeitig niedrigeren Kosten haben soll. Die Produktion startete im Herbst in Thalheim.

Bitterfeld, cloaque industriel devenu fief des énergies renouvelables

Le siège social de Q.Cells, numéro un mondial de la fabrication de cellules solaires, constitue le coeur de la Solar Valley, une zone industrielle où, comme son nom l’indique, des sociétés spécialisées dans l’industrie solaire se sont implantées.

Le Monde.fr

Who says a solar company has to choose between conventional silicon and thin-film solar cells? RoseStreet Labs Energy, a Phoenix-based private company, is combining the two in a double-layered cell that it claims can achieve “practical efficiencies” – meaning efficiencies of cells actually available on the market, not just in the lab – of 25 to 30 percent. On Monday, the company announced the world’s first (or as RoseStreet put it, the “first known”) nitride/silicon tandem solar cell, which it plans to produce in the fourth quarter of next year.

The potential efficiency might not sound breathtaking considering that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency both announced last year that they had produced cells that achieved more than 40 percent efficiency in the lab. But lab efficiencies and production efficiencies are not the same thing, and the highest efficiencies for mass-produced solar cells hover around 22 percent. SunPower Corp., which introduced 22-percent efficiency monocrystalline cells in 2007, last year announced it had produced a prototype with 23.4 percent efficiency, which it expects to launch commercially next year.

RoseStreet thinks its new hybrid cell – which “marries low-cost nitride thin film with the massive infrastructure of silicon solar cells,” as CEO Bob Forcier said in the press release – could be cheaper than crystalline silicon cells. The nitride film, the same material used in solid-state lighting and blue lasers, enables the cells to make use of more of the light spectrum, Forcier told us.

The company plans to use a fabless model, manufacturing the cells through a partner, and also plans to license some of its technology, Forcier added. RoseStreet hopes to reach costs of less than $1.50 per watt, or 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, by 2014. The company plans to target applications with space constraints, such as industrial rooftops and mobile devices.

RoseStreet will certainly have competition. Other technologies are also racing toward higher efficiencies, with six companies – Suntech Power, Sunovia Energy Technologies, IMEC, Q-Cells, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems and Oerlikon – last week announcing world-record-breaking efficiencies for different types of crystalline silicon, thin film and multijunction solar cells.

And RoseStreet will have its work cut out. Many companies developing new technologies end up running into complications that result in delays. So far, at least, Forcier said he doesn’t foresee any problems with getting or processing the nitride material that it plans to use. “Nitrides are pretty pervasive in other parts of the world . . . so we see it as a scaleable technology on a worldwide basis,” he said. “We have no concerns about sourcing.”

In any case, it’s a good sign that the company expects to reach production next year. If RoseStreet really can reach such high efficiencies at a lower cost than conventional crystalline silicon, and can manufacture the cells in mass quantities, it should have no trouble finding a market.

The company has been developing higher-efficiency solar technology since at least 2004, when it licensed multiband technology from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The company has formed partnerships with Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sumitomo Chemical Co., which also invested in RoseStreet.

The company already operates a 500-kW pilot line in Phoenix and last year launched a solar-cell development center in the same city. The company plans to seek more funding – technically its Series A round – in the first quarter of 2010, Forcier said.

Over production, slowing demand and price declines have hemorrhaged the businesses of most solar cell producers this year.

But the pain hasn’t been spread evenly. Companies such as Suntech, Sharp Electronics and Q-cells have seen commanding market positions whittle.

Big dog First Solar has not. The company is poised to finish the year as the largest manufacturer of solar cells with 12.8 percent of the market, up from 7.5 percent last year, says iSuppli.

Its major competitors (listed above) will see their market shares decline, the research firm says.

First Solar has several advantages going for it. Its thin-film technology gives it low production costs and enables it to under cut the price of crystalline cells.

“With its capability to produce cells at a cost of 89 cents per watt in the second quarter, First Solar is generating stable operating margins, while its competitors are struggling to stay profitable,” iSuppli Senior Director Henning Wicht said in a research rerport.

The company also has maintained low inventories so that it is selling what it produces rather than stock piling it and has built established sales operations in Europe.

ISuppli estimates First Solar will manufacture 1,100 megawatts of solar cells this year, more than double last year’s total.

Second place Suntech will end the year with 6.9 percent market share, projects iSuppli.

Summary

* This post expresses a bearish view on the solar industry, specifically with regard to manufacturers of solar photovoltaic cells

* Although demand is growing, and over the long-term the solar sector will become very large, there is currently a massive oversupply of solar PV cells. This oversupply should become much worse in 2010 and 2011. Solar cells are essentially commodity products, and the large supply-demand imbalance should render most high-cost producers insolvent. Low-cost producers will also have trouble generating profits

This week, I’m going to write about companies that sell solar photovoltaic cells, and how I think 50%+ may go bankrupt over the next several years. I think solar cell companies are in the fourth inning of an unmitigated disaster, and the looming supply-demand imbalance in the industry is one of the most violent I’ve ever witnessed in any commodity sector. Unfortunately, I think that the money-making opportunities are limited for conservative investors. Indeed, when I initially decided to write about the doom facing the solar sector, I was fairly excited about shifting a material portion of my short / put / hedge book into solar companies. In the end, however, I came away a little less enthusiastic. The problem is that (a) I’m not sufficiently certain that I’m right, given the high threshold one wants to pass in order to put on aggressive positions on the short / put side, (b) if I’m wrong, I can lose a lot of money and (b) given that valuations have come down materially over the past year, it’s prudent to identify companies that are very likely to go bankrupt. And I didn’t find any of those surefire bankruptcies, although Q-Cells comes close. In investing, few things are more important than having conviction in one’s investment theses. While I think I’m right about this one, I just don’t have enough conviction to put the trade on in large size. Basically, I’d be proven wrong if demand for solar cells soars over the next couple years beyond most analysts’ estimates, driven by large government subsidies and fast-declining module prices. I doubt that the unexpectedly large demand will materialize, and I think that by the time demand outstrips supply, most current solar cell companies will have disappeared. But it’s possible that demand accelerates quicker than I’m expecting. These caveats aside though, I wouldn’t be surprised if the stocks of the three companies discussed below go much lower, or the companies go bust altogether.

Industry Description

The solar sector is part of the emerging renewable energy sector, and over the next 20 years, the solar energy industry will grow rapidly. If even 5% of the world’s electricity is generated by solar power, the size of the industry would increase by over 10 times. By 2020, there will probably be solar cells on top of every building in New York. The government may even pass laws requiring it. But just because the solar sector will experience massive growth doesn’t mean that the current manufacturers of solar cells are poised for a promising future. Today, just about every person in the US uses broadband communication, and the growth in broadband in the past 20 years has been tremendous. But most companies that laid fiber-optic networks in the ground during the 1990s went bust. Solar is similar. Industry growth translates to increased profitability for a given company as long as demand for a company’s products is greater than the supply of those or competitors’ products. When supply outstrips demand, regardless of how fast demand is growing, high-cost suppliers go bankrupt. The demand for solar cells has been increasing at a rapid pace, and will continue to do so. But the supply of solar cells has increased even more rapidly, and it will easily overwhelm demand in 2010 and 2011, in my opinion. It already has, and we’ve seen solar stocks decline 80%+ in some cases. The pain isn’t over yet.

There are two leading technologies in the solar space – silicon-wafer based and thin film-based. Our focus will be on the silicon-wafer based cell manufacturers, which comprise more than 90% of solar cells. I think the main thin film solar cell manufacturer, First Solar, also faces a bleak future, but it has a lot of cash and some long-term contracts with customers, so I’m not focusing on First Solar in this writeup.

There are 5 broad steps to making silicon-wafer PV cells. Step 1 is to make polysilicon. Step 2 is to convert the polysilicon into ingots and wafers. Step 3 is to convert these ingots and wafers into solar cells. Step 4 is to take these cells and put them together into solar “modules”. Step 5 is to construct / install these modules into solar “systems” for customers. Different companies focus on different steps within this 5-step process. Some participate in a combination of steps, such as steps 1 and 2, or steps 2-4, or steps 4-5. The most profitable steps, historically, have been steps 1 and 3. Our focus here is on companies that focus on step 3, or the manufacturing of the cell, but many of the Step 3 companies also participate in other steps in the manufacturing process. No company operates in all 5 steps, yet.

Each step features its own supply-demand characteristics, and that supply-demand imbalance will govern whether the price of the commodity produced in each step will be priced above, below or at marginal cost. Basic economics tells us that if there’s too much supply of a given commodity, the price of that commodity will trend towards marginal cost, or below marginal cost until demand catches up to supply. Currently, there is too much supply in all the steps. There is too much polysilicon. There are too many wafers. There are too may solar cells and there are too many modules. The oversupply began in 4Q08, and has only become more exacerbated as time has gone on. Polysilicon prices have crashed from about $400/kg to about $70/kg. Marginal cost is estimated to be around $35 to $45/kg, and I’ll bet that prices will get there soon enough.

As for solar cells, below is the most important table of the solar short / put thesis. I’ve laid out the demand for PV cells, compared with the supply of PV cells, historically and projected, as provided by two sell-side solar analysts. One is from Barclays and is bullish on the industry. The other is Hapoalim and is generally bearish on the industry. Some numbers are estimated, and the projections were composed at different dates, but both forecasts tell a similar story.

In 2006 through 2008, demand grew rapidly and outstripped supply. This can be seen by the negative numbers in the “Supply Minus Demand” rows, which simply designate PV cell shipments less demand. In 2009 through 2011, both analysts project massive oversupply. The supply-demand imbalances here are not rounding errors. The annual oversupply of photovoltaic solar cells is projected to be 30%-50% of total PV cell shipments!

That’s the crux of the bearish thesis. There’s too much PV cell capacity – way too much – and, as a result, high-cost PV cell producers are going to become deeply unprofitable. Prices for PV cells and modules will continue to drop until either supply goes away (high-cost manufacturers liquidate or otherwise shut down capacity), or until demand surges in response to the lower prices and catches up with supply. While I’m sure that demand will surge in response to the lower prices, I don’t think it’ll be fast enough to save high-cost suppliers.

Selected Companies

In choosing short / put candidates to discuss, I’ve avoided companies that are (i) low dollar-price stocks and (ii) have market caps under $1bn. Some of the solar companies that I’ve seen, particularly the ones in China, have very questionable accounting and have hemorrhaged cash since inception. But as much as I think “Solarfun” is not going to be around in 5 years (I’m serious, there’s a company called “Solarfun”. Its website features 4 children dancing and skipping around a solar cell), it’s nevertheless a $300mm market cap company with a $5.00 stock price. Different investors have different philosophies on this – I personally get queasy watching speculative smallcaps whip around.

Given those constraints, I’ve looked for companies that feature the following:

(i) high leverage, as evidenced by Debt-to-EBITDA and Debt-to-Cash-Flow ratios
(ii) high cost structures
(iii) limited systems/installation business – ie. they don’t participate in step 5 of the solar cell process that we discussed above, and therefore don’t have customer relationships that they can use to differentiate themselves
from other PV cell manufacturers
(iv) low efficiencies (this refers to how technologically advanced their cells are in terms of absorbing sunlight. Higher efficiency cells absorb more sunlight than lower efficiency cells)
(v) high valuations

The finalists I’ve decided on thus far are Q-Cells SE (QCE on the Deutsche Borse); Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd (STP on NYSE); and SunPower Corp. (SPWR.A on Nasdaq).

Q-Cells is one of the highest-cost producers in the solar PV cell space, due to its manufacturing plants in Germany. It is transitioning its facilities to Malaysia, but the move is a bit late, and costly. Leverage has creeped up, with net debt to LTM EBITDA above 4x and likely to creep higher, as EBITDA goes lower and net debt increases throughout 2009 and 2010. Just about the only thing Q-Cells has going for it is that its next debt maturity, a €420mm convertible issuance, is not due until February 2012, and the company has ample cash and availability under its Malaysian revolver until then. But February 2012 is only 20 months away. EBITDA in the last two quarters has been €30mm in Q1 and -€40mm in Q2. Its market capitalization is around €1.2bn. Its PV cell efficiency is not particularly high, standing at around 17%, compared to 22% for Sunpower, and 15% to 17% for Asian producers. It doesn’t have material exposure to United States or Asia, which have upside potential if the US or Chinese governments introduce new feed-in tariff subsidies for solar energy. Its systems business was begun a year ago, and therefore the company somewhat falls into the category of a PV-cell-only producer with limited customer relationships.

Suntech is the largest Asian producer. Generally, I think the Asian solar cell manufacturers are among the better positioned players in the industry given their lower-cost status. But there’s several things I don’t like about Suntech. It has a lot of debt, and leverage stands north of 4x. Its debt situation is a bit murky though, because much of its borrowings are with Chinese banks, and I suspect that the Chinese banks will continue to support Suntech as leverage goes higher. Suntech has also locked itself into a material number of long-term silicon supply contracts. As background to this, from 2005 to 2008, there was a shortage of polysilicon, due to the unexpectedly fast nature of the ramp-up in solar demand beginning 4-5 years ago. The limited supply of polysilicon allowed cell manufacturers with access to polysilicon to enjoy strong margins and pricing power. Polysilicon suppliers, in turn, demanded that cell manufacturers sign long-term contracts at fixed prices, as well as make large cash prepayments to ensure future supply. Now that polysilicon prices have plummeted, these contracts may prove to be a burden to cell manufacturers that agreed to them in the 2006 to 2008 timeframe. Contracted prices are around $60 to $80 per kilogram, whereas spot polysilicon prices will probably head under $50/kg. It’s difficult to get color on which cell manufacturers are locked into the most onerous contracts, but I think Suntech is amongst them. According to one analyst, the company’s estimated next twelve-month (NTM) minimum raw material purchase obligations as a percentage of NTM sales amounted to more than 90%, while the average for its peer group is closer to 50%. As for valuation, STP’s EV / EBITDA multiple stands at more than 20x, due to plummeting EBITDA. And that figure includes more than $100mm of revenue that STP has booked to a joint venture it owns, a suspicious piece of accounting that STP may have used to inflate Q1 numbers.

Sunpower is the largest U.S. producer of silicon-wafer based solar cells. It is a best-in-class provider and features the highest cell efficiency in the industry at 22%. It also has an established systems business and savvier marketing in the US than other cellmakers. Its modules currently sell at a premium to other solar cells. It has been faring ok, compared to other solar suppliers, over the last several quarters because it has taken a lead role in the U.S. and California markets, which have been growing faster than European markets (specifically Spain, which has contracted rapidly this year). Over time, however, I think that Sunpower will be exposed to competition from China, and I think that its higher cell efficiencies, marketing prowess and customer relationships will not compensate for the fact that Chinese producers may flood the market with cheap PV cells while their cash burns are financed by government banks. I think that the increasing oversupply of PV cells in the next two years will impact all industry players, and Sunpower will continue to be impacted, via eroding margins, negative cash flow and increased debt / equity dilution. Sunpower has both an A share and a B share, which irrationally trade at materially different prices. The A share has high short interest due to arbs trying to capitalize on the difference, and the B share has a lower dollar price.

Below is a figure from a Barclays report published in May laying out some low-cost vs. high-cost suppliers. It is no coincidence that Q-Cells and Sunpower, shown below as two of the higher-cost manufacturers, are two of my least favorite. Suntech, while low-cost from a non-silicon costs perspective, has a combination of high debt, high valuation and potentially higher silicon costs than the other competitors.

A final point: solar cell manufacturing is a technology-based industry, and it’s unclear whether the current silicon-wafer based technology will prove ultimately triumphant. There are numerous upstarts that are trying to develop cheaper, more efficient cells than those currently produced by the silicon-wafer and thin film technologies. One is Nanosolar, and it is instructive to check out the technology section of its website at http://www.nanosolar.com/technology.htm. There is a material chance that new future technologies render most current cell manufacturers irrelevant.

This email does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation of any sorts. I may buy, sell or short any of the stocks mentioned at any time. I may be wrong; it won’t be the first or last time.

As always, I look forward to your thoughts.

LEGAL:

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Wow, one day after I praise Q-Cells’ commercial a newspaper reports that Q-Cells will shlash 4 out of 6 plants… just didn’t read where… probably in Germany…

OH BOY!! Better not praise any commercials anymore but rather criticize them

Reuters reported on 13 Aug 2009 that Q-Cells planned to slash about a fifth of its workforce to counter the effects of a price war.

* Around 500 jobs will be cut permanently while short-time work will continue to be in operation at the Thalheim plant. It currently employs about 2,600 staff.
* Q-Cells will review all investment projects.
* It expects the restructuring to cut production costs by 25%, necessary after Asian rivals cut prices.
* Q-Cells made a net loss of €696.9 million in H1 2009, caused by further writedowns on the sale of its stake in REC in May 2009.
* Q-Cells compatriot Phoenix Solar also said on 13 Aug 2009 that first half results were hit by price pressure but will stick with its 2009 forecast sales of €520 million.
* First Solar, which rivals Q-Cells as the world’s biggest maker of solar cells, has so far proved to be coping much better with the crisis (comment: why so?)
* The price war, mainly triggered by Asian competitors, has already forced some European players such as Ersol and REC to either consider or to already move production abroad.
* Q-Cells’ other major rivals, Sharp Corp and Kyocera, have remained relatively unscathed by the crisis, as their cell business only accounts for a small part of their businesses.
* Q-Cells CFO, Nedim Cen said that it has sufficient liquidity, with €520 million.

Here are five facts about the German solar industry:
* The German solar market is expected to become the world’s largest in 2009, overtaking Spain, as measured by megawatts of installation, according to industry association EPIA.
* Germany is home to industry bellwethers such as Q-Cells, one of the world’s largest maker of solar cells, solar inverter maker SMA Solar, and SolarWorld, which makes silicon and solar panels.
* Germany’s 15,000 solar companies (comment: 15,000?! who are they?) employed 70,000 people in 2008 and is expected to rise to 200,000 by 2020, according to German solar industry association BSW.
* Sales in the industry amounted to about €7 billion ($9.9 billion) in 2008, while the export quota of photovoltaic companies was 46%.
* According to BSW, photovoltaics will account for 1% of Germany’s power consumption this year, with that share seen rising to 25% by 2050.

Reuters reported on 11 Aug 2009 that solar cell manufacturing capacity will grow 59% in 2009 despite weakened demand for renewable energy projects in the face of tight credit markets and a global economic recession in a report issued by research group DisplaySearch. DisplaySearch joined the solar market research bandwagon when it released its first Quarterly PV Cell Capacity Database & Trends Report on 11 Aug 2009.

Summary of the report:
1. Cell manufacturing capacity will reach 17 GW this year and will surpass 42 GW by 2013, growing at a rate of 49% per year.
2. While demand for PV panels is shrinking 17% this year and enormous oversupply eroded prices, the solar industry will begin working through the excess capacity as demand recovers next year and takes off in 2011 and beyond.
3. From Jan 2008 to July 2009, about 11.4 GW of new solar cell capacity was installed worldwide.
4. The report named First Solar as the largest solar cell manufacturer with more than 1 GW of capacity. Q-Cells and Suntech Power come in second.
5. By 2013, these companies and JA Solar Holdings, Motech Industries, Renewable Energy Corp (REC), SunPower, Yingli Green Energy Holding, Showa Shell Sekiyu KK and Sharp Corp may be among the top 10 makers, with more than 16 GW or 38% of total capacity in 2013.
6. Through 2006, Japan had the largest solar cell production capacity in the world. However, Chinese companies started to ramp up a host of new facilities in 2005 and by 2007 had more solar cell capacity on line than any other country. China has continued to invest heavily in production facilities, about a third of the worldwide cell capacity in 2009 and is forecast to be the main region for cell production well into the future.
7. In 2005, 95% of solar cell manufacturing capacity was for crystalline silicon solar cells and 5% for thin film solar cells. In 2009, thin film will account for more than 20% of capacity. By 2013, thin film technologies are forecast to account for as much as 30% of solar cell capacity.

The following table is the top 10 photovoltaic device suppliers in 2008:

Another research firm, iSuppli, ranked the top 20 global solar companies in Q1-2008 by production in 2007 and by announced production capacity 2010:

Top 10 Suppliers of PV Manufacturing Supplier in 2008 by VLSI Research:

The following is summarized from IC Insights Research Bulletin 2009 report Solar Energy: Growth Oppor­tu­ni­ties for the Semi­con­duc­tor Industry:

1. Japan’s sup­pli­ers of solar PV cells and pan­els, which dom­i­nated the indus­try for many years, slipped in the sup­plier rank­ings in 2008.

2. Sharp was the No. 1 PV device sup­plier in 2006 and for sev­eral years before that but was overtaken by Q-Cells and Sun­tech Power Hold­ings in 2007. First Solar blew past both Sharp and Sun­tech, push­ing Sharp down to No. 4 in 2008 rankings, which are based on peak-megawatt value of the PV devices pro­duced and sold by each supplier.

3. Sharp was not the only Japan­ese sup­plier whose posi­tion declined in the 2008 rank­ing. Kyocera Corp. slipped from the No. 5 spot in 2007 to No. 6 in 2008. Sanyo, which was No. 7 in 2007, did not make top 10 in 2008. Mit­subishi also dropped in the ranking.

4. Future rank­ings are expected to show sig­nif­i­cant changes due to small incre­ments that sep­a­rate the top play­ers. The top 4 sup­pli­ers all achieved mar­ket­ share (based on MW sales) between 8.0% and 9.5%. A sec­ond tier of sup­pli­ers, formed by those ranked No. 5 to No. 10, have between 4% and 5% mar­ket­ share.

5. Other than First Solar, the ris­ers in the top 10 list were exclu­sively sup­pli­ers based in China or Tai­wan. Although Sun­tech slipped from No. 2 to No. 3, JA Solar Hold­ings rose from No. 10 to No. 7 in based on 109% growth in MW sales in 2008. Yingli Green Energy Hold­ing advanced from No. 9 to No. 8 on the strength of 93% growth.

6. In Tai­wan, Motech Indus­tries mov­ed from No. 6 to No. 5 thanks to a 67% increase in MW sales. But per­haps more impres­sive was the per­for­mance of Gin­tech Energy, which equaled First Solar’s growth of 144% in MW sales in 2008, pulling itself up from No. 12 to No. 8.

7. Gin­tech, like JA Solar, makes solar cells only; these 2 com­pa­nies fol­low the busi­ness model of top-ranked Q-Cells, which has only recently started to diver­sify beyond pure-play PV cell man­u­fac­tur­ing. Other sup­pli­ers are involved in panel man­u­fac­tur­ing, sys­tem instal­la­tions, and other aspects of the solar value chain.

8. No. 10 Solar World AG, a Ger­man com­pany that holds the dis­tinc­tion of being the biggest man­u­fac­turer of PV cells in the U.S., thanks to the recent expan­sion of its plant in Hills­boro, Ore­gon.

9. A U.S.-headquartered cell man­u­fac­turer, Sun­Power, almost made it into the top 10 in 2008, but Sun­Power man­u­fac­tures its cells in plants in the Philippines.

Comment: Chinese and Taiwanese rise up in the ranking as they are able to compete on cost, unlike Germany and Japan. I post here a map of PV manufacturer locations in China. Not sure how dated is the map but if you’re looking for JA Solar, you should look for “Jing Ao Solar” in the map:

About: Good Energies is a leading global investor in renewable energy and energy efficiency industries. The firm invests in solar, turbine-based renewables, green building technologies and other emerging areas within clean energy. Guided by the “3-P” principle of People-Planet-Profit, Good Energies looks for meaningful, long-term investments in companies with outstanding growth potential. The firm’s mission is to accelerate the global transition to a low-carbon economy. Founded in 2001, Good Energies manages the renewable energy portfolio of Netherlands-based COFRA Holding, a family owned and managed group of companies. The firm operates globally from offices in London, New York, Toronto, Washington, D.C., and Zug, Switzerland. Current and previous investments include REC, Q-Cells, Solarfun and Sunfilm.

www.goodenergies.com

Key Personnel:
Marcel Brenninkmeijer, Managing Director & Chairman
Managing Director: John Breckenridge, Jean-Louis Brenninkmeijer, George Coelho, Hugh Frater, Sven Hansen, Richard Kauffman, Andrew Lee, William Nesbitt, Michael Ware

Portfolio:
Solar – 6N Silicon, Concentrix Solar, Konarka, NorSun, Q-Cells, Resolar, Solarcentury, Solarfun, SolarReserve, Sunfilm, XJet
Turbine-based Renewables – 3TIER, C-Free Power Corp, CWP, Dummuies Wind Farm, Eolectric, EverPower Renewables, Geilectric, Jasper Wind, Relight, Second Wind, Sequoia Energy, Vents du Kempt, Western Bio-Energy
Energy Efficiency & Green Buildings – AlertMe, Ice Energy, Microstaq, SAGE Electrochromics, Tendril
Investments in the Developing World – Emergence BioEnergy
R&D – ActaCell

News: As mentioned earlier in the VantagePoint Venture Partners blog, Good Energies was also involved in the funding rounds for Tendril and AlertMe in June 2009.

According to this Reuters report and another report, the Good Energies fund size is estimated to be €4 billion. It invests about €350 million per year. Earlier in a blog, chairman and founder Marcel Brenninkmeijer was mentioned as the 4th richest in Sunday Times Green Rich List 2009 with ₤19 billion wealth. He also invested early in REC and Q-Cells.

In an earlier blog, I mentioned that Apax Partners and Good Energies co-invested €24m in CSG Solar in January 2005. Although Good Energies is listed as an investor on CSG’s website but CSG is not listed as an investment under Good Energies’ portfolio. According to this report in May 2009, “As part of its cost management program, Q-Cells has stopped investing in thin-film solar start-up CSG Solar AG. The Crystalline Silicon on Glass (CSG) technologist raised €24 million in 2005 to commercialise the technology with funding from Apax Funds and Good Energies as well as Q-Cells. Q-Cells CEO, Anton Milner said the company would ‘exit’ CSG Solar during its quarterly conference call with financial analysts.” No other reports were available to see whether Q-Cells has exited CSG Solar yet. Meanwhile Q-Cells is still listed as an investor on CSG’s website.

In May 2009, Good Energies sponsored the Chair for Management of Renewable Energies at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) (Switzerland) – the first of its kind at a leading European business school. Marcel Brenninkmeijer, Chairman of Good Energies, handed over the official deed of foundation in an opening ceremony to Rector Prof. Ernst Mohr and Prof. Dr. Rolf Wüstenhagen, who has been appointed by the University of St.Gallen to hold the new Chair, which is co-sponsored by COFRA Holding. The Good Energies Chair aspires to become a center of excellence for research and teaching of the business aspects of renewable energy and energy efficiency focusing on innovative business models and dedicated energy entrepreneurship.

In April 2009, Sunfilm AG and Sontor GmbH merged to become one of the world’s largest providers of tandem junction silicon based thin film modules. The new company will be named Sunfilm AG. In an increasingly competitive global photovoltaic market, Sunfilm will have the necessary size and expertise to significantly profit from the growing segment of thin film solar. Q-Cells SE, Good Energies and NorSun AS will be the shareholders of the new Sunfilm and are firmly committed to supporting the company on its future growth path.

View Chairman Marcel Brenninkmeijer videos at Worldwatch State of the World 2009 Symposium in January 2009 here Part 1 and Part 2 or on vodpod.

About: Apax Partners is one of the world’s leading private equity investment groups and based in London and New York. It operates across the United States, Europe and Asia and has more than 30 years of investing experience. Funds under the advice of Apax Partners total $40 billion around the world. These Funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. Apax Partners Funds invest in companies across its global sectors of Tech & Telecom, Retail & Consumer, Media, Healthcare and Financial & Business Services. Significant recent investments by funds advised by the Apax Partners Healthcare and Tech & Telecom teams include: General Healthcare Group, Capio, Apollo Hospitals, Qualitest Pharmaceuticals, Spectrum Laboratories, Weather Investments, SMART Technologies and TDC.

www.apax.com

Key Personnel:
Martin Halusa, CEO

Portfolio:
Apax doesn’t list its green investments as a sector and I think most of them are under its Tech & Telecom sector. I think their green investments are:
CSG Solar, InnovaLight. Note: I haven’t completed the listing as its portfolio is large, will update once I’m done.

News: January 2006: Apax Partners made a 27-fold return on its 22-month investment in the German solar power cell company Q-Cells, after selling all but 0.5% of its stake in the business at €68 per share. Apax’s return, €280m after costs and net of its original investment is the largest single capital gain made by a European VC firm since the dot.com boom. It beats the $300m return Index Ventures made on the $4.1bn sale of Skype to eBay in September 2005. Apax invested €11.5m in Q-Cells in a third round of venture funding in March 2004; Good Energies also invested in Q-Cells in the same funding. Good Energies which first invested in Q-Cells in 2002 still holds 47.6% as of April 2009. Christian Reitberger, who led Apax’s investment in Q-Cells back in 2004, joined Wellington Partners Venture Capital in 2008.

Apax and Good Energies also co-invested €24m in CSG Solar in January 2005.

Q-Cells which acquired a stake in Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) in February 2007 has sold its entire 17.2% stake in REC in May 2009. It was Good Energies who sold its 17.9% stake in REC to Q-Cells and another 12.5% stake in REC to Orkla in February 2007. Good Energies who invested in REC back in 2001 does not have any stake in REC now. Good Energies chairman and founder is Marcel Brenninkmeijer, who invested early in REC and Q-Cells.

This Intersolar 2009, PV Power Tech, a leading manufacturer of photovoltaic modules, successfully introduced the premium PVQ3 – Black series of modules. Very often, there is a compromise in the aesthetics of the structure when standard PV Modules are installed with their contrasting dark blue, white and silver colors. PV Power Tech is addressing this requirement with its PVQ3 – Black series of modules.

The modules are constructed at PV Power Tech’s completely automated plant in Mumbai, India. The highlight of the modules are the high efficiency next generation 3 bus bar cells from Q Cells, Germany. The module’s robust and aesthetically appealing construction is a result of high quality solar glass from Saint Gobain, black anodized frames and a black back sheet. The modules are TUV certified for IEC 61215, IEC 61730 and Safety Class II. The modules are offered in power ranging from 165 watts to 230 watts.

PV Power Tech manufacturers all its product under strict quality and process guidance at its TUV certified completely automated manufacturing plant in Mumbai, India. The company is also going to be ISO certified soon. For more information, please email at info@pvpowertech.com or visit www.pvpowertech.com