THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for December, 2011

Golf Cart Solar Introduces Thin Film Solar Golf Cart Kit

Golf Cart Solar, a Sarasota, Florida based solar technology company announced today a new “Zero Cost” golf cart solar panel program that provides solar panels for golf carts at no cost to the end user customer. Golf Cart Solar will be unveiling the new program at the PGA Show, Orlando, FL January 26-28, 2012, booth 2228.

“In addition to the obvious demand by golf courses and golfers to go green, technological advances, government incentives and increased competition has driven down the cost of solar cells, resulting in this new breakthrough pricing program,” said Doug Fyvolent, partner in Golf Cart Solar.

Golf courses could save up to 20% or more on electrical costs associated with charging golf cart batteries. This savings reduces one of the major expenses incurred by golf courses. Golf Cart Solar’s program includes both new and used aftermarket kits, as well as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) program so the leading golf cart manufacturers can install the system inline during the manufacturing process.

The Program is available to golf courses that either buy or lease. “We have had extensive conversations with the leading cart leasing companies and they understand what we are doing and if they qualify can include this kit in their leasing programs,” said Fyvolent.

The kit includes a new technology, thin film solar panels, controller and wiring harness. Golf Cart Solar can also do the installation for the end users.

Warren Buffett Buys into Thin Film Solar Panels

Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings unit agreed to buy the $2 billion Topaz project in California, branching into solar power after the industry was clobbered in stock markets around the world.

The Topaz Solar Farm in San Luis Obispo County will be one of the largest photovoltaic power plants in the world and is being developed by the seller, First Solar Inc. (FSLR) of Tempe, Arizona, according to a joint statement today from the companies. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

Buffett’s Iowa-based natural gas and power supplier struck the deal after First Solar failed to get a U.S. government loan guarantee for the project that will use First Solar’s thin-film solar panels. The manufacturer’s shares have fallen 65 percent this year, matching the 65 percent drop in the Bloomberg Industry Global Leaders Large Solar Energy index.

Thin Film Solar Firms Confident Despite Industry Challenges

A year after a U.S. senator said northwest Ohio’s solar-panel industry was helping the state to become known as “the Silicon Valley of clean energy,” industry experts predict the global industry will undergo a major shakeout that will break all but a handful of solar panel producers worldwide.

The bold forecast raises questions about the future of the Toledo area’s three panel makers, with one more coming next year.

Each of the firms with local operations — First Solar Inc., Xunlight Corp., Willard & Kelsey Group LLC, and, building a plant in Napoleon, Isofoton North America — contends it makes a particular type of panel that is in demand and is competitively priced, so it will survive any industry consolidation.

The chief executive of China’s Trina Solar Ltd., the world’s fifth-largest solar panel maker, predicted recently that by 2015 two-thirds of the industry’s solar-related companies will face mergers, acquisitions, or bankruptcy.

And by 2020, Jifan Gao said, just 15 solar firms will be left — five each in of three major segments: photovoltaic (solar) panels, solar energy-absorbing wafers and ingots, and production of raw materials such as polysilicon, the most commonly used material in solar panel manufacturing.

Jeffrey Pichel, an industry analyst at Jefferies & Co., has forecast a consolidation of the industry for three years.

“It’s not so revolutionary an idea,” he said. Already, three large U.S. solar companies — Solyndra LLC, Evergreen Solar, and SpectraWatt — have gone bankrupt. A fourth, BP Solar, halted manufacturing in the spring.

Fitch Ratings Ltd. said recently that solar power companies are likely to encounter tough conditions for their public stock, and First Solar, the world’s largest maker of thin-film panels, said competitors are “desperate” to sell inventory after adding too much factory capacity, leading to a supply glut.

Industry pressures

Industry pressures have affected the existing three. First Solar has cut its sales and margin forecasts to reflect slower demand growth and stiffer competition.

Xunlight laid off 30 employees in May after an Italian firm delayed payment on a panel order.

Willard & Kelsey planned to have two production lines and 250 workers by now, but an executive said the poor economy and slow demand have hindered financing for a second line.

Xunming Deng, chief executive at Xunlight, said, “We will be one of those survivors. Our products are unique and different and we’re starting at a much more premium price.”

Tom Kimbis, vice president of strategy and external affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association, which has 1,100 member companies, said intense competition will produce failures, mergers, acquisitions, and bankruptcies.

Still, there will be newcomers to the industry, he said, adding,

“The Internet didn’t shut down because Netscape disappeared.”

 

Different technology

Existing Toledo area solar firms differ from others globally by technology.

First Solar, Xunlight, and Willard & Kelsey all make thin-film solar panels, a relatively small segment of the overall industry.

In thin-film production, solar energy-absorbing coatings are applied directly onto a glass panel.

Conventional panels, which dominate the industry, use energy-absorbing wafers that are attached to a panel, making them heavier than thin-film modules.

Xunlight’s modules are flexible. Mr. Deng, the CEO, said last week that his company had a setback this year but it is still selling product and just received a payment up front from a European buyer for 100 kilowatts of panels.

“We are enjoying the premium price on the flexible process we use … and that is why we believe we have a bright future,” he said.

Willard & Kelsey’s Mr. Cicak said solar is “going to be the cheapest form of electricity, and it’s going to continue to get lower in cost.”

 

Is U.S. Solar Industry Up to Challenge?

“I don’t care about Solyndra,” General Electric (GE) CEO Jeffrey Immelt said at Columbia University recently.

It was an unmistakable reminder, if not a declaration, that there is much more to the solar power story than the ill-fated bankruptcy of one company. A failure which set off a wave of investor negativity not only for solar stocks now, but which led to many investors questioning the future of the solar industry.

Some of the reaction by solar companies in the US was to complain loudly about China’s practices in its solar industry, a complaint which maintains China’s subsidies were out of bounds according to World Trade Organization rules, as well as the accusation that Chinese solar companies were dumping their solar panel products on the market and causing a steep decline in price. In short, these US companies were crying foul, as in unfair competition.

GE Picks Up the Gauntlet
For Immelt’s part, it was clear that GE’s response was different. GE is building a factory to produce the thin-film solar panels in Germany at a cost of $300 million, according to a Bloomberg report.

Thin film, or cadmium telluride, is considered by some in the industry to be the potentially more advanced solar technology compared to the polysilicon, or pure crystalline technology largely prevalent in the industry today. While others dispute this, and claim polysilicon is more efficient, GE and US industry leader First Solar (FSLR) are committed to thin film.