More countries, led by India, to fuel solar growth

BOSTON--Germany, Italy, and Spain may be the solar powerhouses of today, but in five years, a new set of countries led by India will emerge as leading consumers of solar technology, according to an analyst.

Lux Research solar analyst Ted Sullivan yesterday predicted that India, South Africa, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, and the U.K. are among the countries best-suited to create the market demand for gigawatts worth of solar panels as established countries cool off.

A solar plant in Spain. Which countries will be the fast-growing solar markets after 2012?
(Credit: GE)

Last year, Germany and Italy represented about two-thirds of the solar market, but solar growth in those countries is expected to level off this year as subsidies get scaled back. Also, once distributed solar reaches a certain penetration, it becomes challenging for grid operators to maintain stability without grid storage.

For solar manufacturers, which are cranking out higher and higher volumes of solar panels, the question of which country can become the "next Germany" and consume hundreds of megawatts of solar is an important question for the industry, said Sullivan during a presentation at the Lux Executive Summit here.

Japan, the U.S., and China are also large markets, representing about four gigawatts of capacity installed last year. But because of questions of subsidies and solar penetration in the grid, the question of where the bulk of demand lies after 2011 is still unclear, Sullivan said.

Bringing down the cost of solar and changing utility regulations to employ time-of-use pricing, in which peak power costs more, could make solar more attractive in emerging countries such as Mexico or Brazil, he said. In India, solar will likely need to be coupled with storage for off-grid applications to take hold, he added.

But even with the potential of some developing markets, Sullivan said it will take years for many of them to materialize. In five years, he predicted one-third of the 32 gigawatts of installed capacity will be in countries which have little solar power today.

GE to build massive thin-film U.S. solar plant

General Electric plans to build a thin-film solar factory in the U.S. that will produce solar cells that have an efficiency of 12.8 percent, the company announced today.

In conjunction with this news, GE also announced that it has acquired PrimeStar Solar, a company GE has had a stake in since 2008.

The thin-film solar cells to be manufactured using cadmium telluride were developed by PrimeStar through a cooperative research program with Department of Energy's National Center for Photovoltaics. The cells were given a 12.8 percent efficiency rating, through a verification process conducted by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL).

Even though others have achieved higher efficiencies in the lab, that 12.8 percent efficiency rating is significant in the world of thin-film solar technology manufacturing. Cells made from silicon can convert sunlight to electricity with a 15 percent to 20 percent efficiency, but are much more expensive to manufacture and considered a completely different class of solar cell. Thin-film solar cells made with copper, indium, gallium, and selenide (CIGS) have reached 15.7 percent efficiency in the lab.

Related links
• GE re-enters solar business with thin-film 'system'
• Solar CIGS reach 15.7 percent efficiency
• Report: U.S. solar $6 billion industry in 2010

A better comparison would be with First Solar, the company that will be GE's leading competitor. First Solar has been producing thin-film solar cells using cadmium telluride for years, and has said those manufactured cells have an 11.2 percent efficiency

"Milestones like these are pivotal as the United States looks to drive widespread adoption of solar technologies," Ryne Raffaelle, director of the National Center for Photovoltaics at NREL, said in a statement.

GE told that it has fresh plant, as complete, will be able to produce 400 megawatts worth of thin-film solar cells per year and employ 400 people. That would make it one of the largest thin-film solar manufacturing presences in the U.S.

The company didn't give specifics on where the facility will be sited, or when it will go into operation. GE said it plans to announce the location shortly, from among a number of locations being considered.

1st Solar announced in March that it's constructing a 250-megawatt plant in Arizona to complement its existing Ohio plant, which will bring its total U.S. manufacturing capacity to 500 megawatts annually by 2012.

A few companies, including GE and Abound Solar, have bet on cadmium telluride rather than CIGS. That could be because it is easier to source those two materials instead of the four that go into CIGS. Cadmium and tellurium are often byproducts of mining processes.

The U.S. solar market grew 67 per centum between 2009 and 2010 and is now a $6 billion market, according to a recent report from Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research. The report saw growth potential in the space as more and more utilities seek to build installations for themselves, or source solar electricity for their portfolio.

Worldwide demand for solar is also expected to grow to a $113.6 billion industry by 2020, according to a recent report from Clean Edge.

GE has long said that it wants to be a major player in the space, announcing in 2009 that it would have a thin-film manufacturing plant in the U.S. by 2011.

Google to invest €3.5m in German solar set

Google wish invest €3.5m in a solar photovoltaic power plant in Germany, according to an announcement on Thursday.

The power plant has a capacity of 18.65MWp and is located on a 116 acre site — previously used as a Russian military training ground — in Brandenburg an der Havel, approximately 50 miles from Berlin.

Google told it will provide clean Department of Energy to more than 5,000 homes in the surrounding area.

The €3.5m (£3.06m) investment is part of a joint project involving Capital Stage, a private equity company with experience in the German renewable energy market.

The proposal still requires the formal approval of the German competition authorities and is subject to other customary closing conditions, Google said.

Google has previously invested in a number of clean energy schemes in the US but this is the first time that the company has invested in a European initiative.

In 2010, Google announced that it would invest $38.8m (£23.8m) in two wind farms in North Dakota, capable of powering 55,000 homes.

It also joined a scheme to build a transmission backbone off the mid-Atlantic coast in order to accelerate offshore wind development. If successful, the plan could generate enough energy to serve 1.9 million households.

Analyzing a second living for electric-vehicle electric battery

When a lithium ion stamp battery gets hold of the charge at which it can no longer be used in an electric car, it still has the potential to be used in other applications. But exactly what are the best uses for them?

The U.S. government is backing a comprehensive study to determine just that, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced Tuesday.

"To appointment, no one has comprehensively studied the feasibility, durability, and value of Li-ion batteries for second-use applications," NREL said in a statement.

The California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE) will lead the research project which will explore the best applications for used lithium ion batteries. Potential uses include employing used batteries as energy storage devices for variable electricity sources like wind and solar that could also tie in to the electric grid.

"The NREL award to the CCSE team leverages an ongoing UC Davis-CCSE-TSRC study funded by the California Energy Commission on the repurposing of used EV batteries for home energy storage. The total budget for the NREL-CCSE instant use stamp battery figure is approximately $1.ternary million with 51 percent of the funding coming from CCSE and its partners," according to NREL.

The group will also examine how lithium ion batteries might be better designed or manufactured to maximize their potential for second-life uses.

NREL's project is not just a technical study. Like many Department of Energy projects in recent years, a comprehensive study on the economic consequences will be conducted in tandem with the application research.

The team plans to investigate how a second-use system might be utilized to normalize the high-dollar toll from electric cars and electric-car batteries in the U.S.

It might be economically viable, for example, to have a system where people or companies can give electric-car batteries over for second use, and obtain a refund or credit for the battery's remaining value. Such a system might lower the overall cost of a lithium ion car batteries for manufacturers and consumers.

In addition to researching all the possible uses for lithium ion batteries, the study will also include comprehensive testing to determine battery lifespan, as well as developing a standard for testing and determining battery life.

Keeping your Third-Party Service Provider in Line

Wouldn't them consume equaled provident on-duty Epsilon's depart to have encrypted email addresses and client names on the off chance that its systems could have been breached? After all, the conventional wisdom among IT security professionals now is that it's not a question of if your systems will be breached, but when. Perhaps Epsilon, like other third-party service providers, is doing just what's needed under the law, and it's the laws that need revision.


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It seems that every time we turn around, another major security breach has occurred.

The latest was the data breach at Epsilon, which manages customer databases and furnishes third-party netmail merchandising military service* to cardinal,500 corporate clients, including some of America's biggest firms.

That breach has led to the loss of client data at more than 50 major companies, including the Hilton hotel chain, Victoria's Secret and Verizon.

It could endanger millions of consumers, who can now be targeted directly by hackers using spearphishing techniques such as the one that successfully cracked the defenses of IT security giant RSA.

The potential fallout for Epsilon clients is huge. They could not only lose money, but also may suffer from bad publicity, lawsuits filed by angry consumers, and the scrutiny of authorities.

What can corporations outsourcing various services to third-party providers do to protect themselves -- or at least try to ensure that the best security tools available are being used to safeguard their customers?
The Epsilon Caper

It's not yet known how Epsilon's systems were breached; neither the company nor its parent, Alliance Data, is disclosing any details.

Epsilon posted a notification on its website April 1, stating that it had detected a breach of its email systems March 30, and that only email addresses and customer names were stolen.

On Wednesday, Alliance Data confirmed on its website that only customer names and email addresses were stolen from Epsilon's systems.

About 2 percent of Epsilon's total client base was impacted, Alliance Data said. Epsilon has about 2,500 clients.

Epsilon spokesperson Jessica Simon declined to comment further to TechNewsWorld on the issue.
Questions Raised by the Breach

Given that many corporations are outsourcing various services to cut costs, the breach at Epsilon gives rise to many questions, David Meizlik, director of product and marketing communications at Websense, told TechNewsWorld.

These include what controls Epsilon had put in place to protect its data, what controls it was contractually obligated to have in place, what data it had that it shouldn't have had, how the breach occurred, and how it was detected, according to Meizlik.

"These questions and many more will likely be the basis of many chief security officer discussions in the years to come," he remarked.
Risky Business

"Third parties like Epsilon don't ensure adequate protection," Ulf Mattsson, chief technology officer of Protegrity, told TechNewsWorld. "That became apparent when Epsilon declined to answer why the email addresses were not encrypted."

Wouldn't it have been prudent on Epsilon's part to have encrypted email addresses and client names on the off chance that its systems could have been breached? After all, the conventional wisdom among IT security professionals now is that it's not a question of if your systems will be breached, but when.

Perhaps Epsilon, like other third-party service providers, is doing just what's needed under the law, and it's the laws that need revision.

"The states here in the U.S. currently have data breach notification laws in place and do establish the need for encryption, but they fail to specify what type of encryption or other security measures are adequate," Mattsson pointed out.

That leaves things open to interpretation, with possibly disastrous results.

"An organization may believe that its security solution complies with various laws and regulations, only to find out after a security breach that this is not the case," Mattsson said.
Dealing With Service Providers

Companies outsourcing functions to third-party service providers should have service level agreements that ensure the data being shared is being protected by the strongest measures appropriate to the level of sensitivity of that data, Meizlik suggested.

Specific criteria for what that protection includes should also be defined as part of the agreement. Some service providers and cloud platforms let clients restrict access to their data, he said.

However, companies must first have controls in place in-house to ensure that only the right data is being exported, Meizlik warned. Further, they should conduct audits periodically and oversee security to ensure it's current.
Looking to the Payment Card Industry

Businesses could look to the Payment Card Industry information security measures monetary standard*, or PCI Doctor of Science* since direction, Protegrity's Mattsson stated.

Administered by the PCI Security Standards Council, PCI DSS adopts technologies such as tokenization, modern encryption approaches such as formatted encryption, and models for point-to-point-encryption, Mattsson noted.

The PCI DSS standards "represent a good best practice set of criteria for industries where data protection is critical," Julian Lovelock, senior director of product marketing at Actividentity, told TechNewsWorld.

The PCI Security Standards Council has certified Quality Security Assessors to audit companies against PCI DSS guidelines.
Managing the User

Further, corporations should ensure both they, and their third-party service providers, work to enforce security and help staff understand it better.

"Organizations trust internal people, but trust should not be a policy," warned Protegrity's Mattsson.

In addition to enforcing security rules, corporations should invest in training staff on security.

"Continuous, periodic training is the only way to bring down users' vulnerability and keep them at an acceptable level," Rohyt Belani, CEO at PhishMe, told TechNewsWorld.

That consumes to follow conflated with the engineering science to identify advanced malware and the ability to respond quickly to breaches, Belani bestowed.

Solar Summit 2011: The Inverter Market: Cheap, Flat and Crowded

2010 saw solar inverters, the oft-neglected component of PV systems, shine but will 2011 hold the same success?
Solar Summit 2011: The Inverter Market: Cheap, Flat and Crowded

As new low-cost entrants begin to dominate the solar PV module landscape, the threat of commoditization may already be realized. With module prices skydiving from 2009 highs of $2.70/Wdc to sub-$1.80/Wdc, developers and policy-makers alike are increasingly focusing on non-module components for cost cutting initiatives. Programs like the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sunshot Initiative that target installed costs at $1.00/Wdc include aggressive targets in balance of systems and inverter costs to $0.40/Wdc and $0.10/Wdc respectively. Indeed, a recent SunRun report shows that standardized local permitting laws could reduce installation costs by $0.50/Wdc. Germany’s balance of systems costs are half of average U.S. balance of systems costs.

Inverters, however, tend to be ignored in discussions of system cost reductions. The drop from current factory-gate pricing of large-scale inverters to $0.10/Wdc is dramatic, but achievable by the DOE's goal of 2017, though some manufacturers have indicated that cuts in initial $/W need to be balanced with reliability and quality concerns. Similar to PV modules, raw materials comprise over 70% of final product costs. Yet,, whereas raw materials found in PV modules, like polysilicon, encapsulants, tabbings, etc. are specialized and bill of materials are limited, part counts for inverters run in the multi-hundreds.

Most of these components are non-application-specific, which means that inverter companies have to compete with the larger electronics industry. In early 2010, with the greater semiconductor industry suffering from the effects of the global recession, critical power electronic components like IGBTs and controller boards were in dire shortage and led to global inverter shortages. With limited purchasing power, even leading inverter manufacturers were unable to procure components to meet booming demand. The shortage coupled with the growth of commercial and medium voltage segments in key markets allowed newer companies to capture significant market shares at the expense of global leader SMA, which however, still controls nearly three times the next largest player.

As component supply constraints have eased, plans for capacity expansion have skyrocketed, with announced 2010 year-end capacity reaching over 32 GW (and module manufacturers thought they had a tough environment). This capacity value, however, can be misleading as inverter throughput is a function of raw material procurement, labor avaliability (often in the form of temporary workers), and testing bandwidth. Capex costs for new facilities is extremely low—often below 1-2% of final cost of product—and typically represents empty warehouse/assembly space and new testing equipment. As such, capacity is easily overstated. Actual shipments in 2010 were closer to 21 GW.

In 2011’s environment of eroding European subsidies and rapidly falling module and balance of systems pricing, traditional inverter leaders will be under heavy siege from many new challengers. From North America and Asia, emerging regional inverter manufacturers like Advanced Energy, Sungrow Power Supply, and even the Japanese conglomerates who were once content on defending their domestic turf are mounting significant expansion efforts into Europe.

The competition will rise in North America, too, as European challengers seek the next growth market. New U.S. production facilities like those announced by KACO New Energy, Power-One, Ingeteam, and Delta/LTi Reenergy show that European players are dedicated to long-term presence in the North American market. The entrance into Ontario’s market has been less committed, with most of the new capacity either poised to serve both the U.S. and Canada or acquired through contract manufacturing. Thus far, new competition from Europe has been delayed due to certification barriers, as many European inverter manufacturers are having difficulty passing their inverters, especially of the transformerless type, through the UL standards process. However, with newly minted transformerless inverters from SMA and Fronius now certified for the North American market, it is only a matter of time before waves of certification follow suit.

Meanwhile, attracted by the promised gold rush of solar energy, global electronic conglomerates like GE have adapted existing technology from their wind and other related product lines into solar inverters. These conglomerates will be especially difficult to compete with given their purchasing power and established supply chain, which will allow them to weather downward pricing pressure.. Albeit counter-intuitive, though, these new entrants still have to pass stringent bankability and reliability tests. Both banks and developers have, thus far shown remarkable distinction between corporate bankability and product bankability. Considering inverters are the root cause for over 50% of PV system downtime incidents, even the strongest corporate parent does not get an automatic pass. Nevertheless, their diversified nature gives these new entrants more flexibility in the scenario of depressed global demand.

On a collision course with traditional inverters are micro-inverter and distributed optimization players, whose market grew over 125% in 2010. While Enphase generally receives most of the buzz with its estimated 17% share of the U.S. residential market in 2010, SolarEdge has relatively quietly shipped over 50 MW in the same period. These two market leaders represent a combined $167+ million in venture capital backing and the brimming war chests have allowed for aggressive global expansion campaigns. Nevertheless, there are dozens more in the space maneuvering for an edge; in just the first two months of 2011, there has already been one un-stealthing, new product announcements, and entrances into the multi-MW market.

So even though inverters are not resigned to commoditization yet, 2011 will not be a cakewalk. And with aggressive expansion strategies by established and new inverter companies alike, the “it’s a good time to be an inverter company” attitude of 2010 has the potential to quickly sour.

***

Editor's note: Executives from Advanced Energy, Enphase Energy, SMA and SolarEdge, among others, will discuss the future of PV inverters at Greentech Media's Solar Industry Summit 2011 on March 14 and 15.

Small Improvements to Make Big Difference

Old memo from the boss: Your goal for 2010 — build one of the most energy efficient office buildings in the world on the campus of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). New memo from the boss: Your goal for 2011 — repeat 2010 goal and increase energy efficiency by 17 percent.

Fortunately for NREL, these goals are being achieved thanks to $39 million in funding for the new RSF wing from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The ARRA funding allowed a planned 138,000 square foot expansion of the Research Support Facility to get underway shortly after the finishing touches on the first phase of RSF were complete. Accelerating the building of the second phase of RSF means that NREL will finish the building years earlier than expected as well as provide a unique opportunity for research and contractors.

"A general rule of thumb for projects is you do something, you learn from it and then your ability to apply what you learned is limited by the next project that you get to do," Philip Macey, Division Manager, High Performance Buildings for Haselden Construction said. "Buildings are individually unique. You almost never get to apply what you just learned as is the case with the RSF expansion project. This has been an amazing opportunity for everybody."

Once the expansion is complete, visitors to the RSF will not see two different projects. In the end, the RSF will look and feel like one building.
Same … but Different
Photo of a building under construction on the NREL campus. Enlarge image

Construction of the RSF expansion is well underway in Golden, Colo. Started only six months after the initial RSF project, advances in energy efficiency technology will enable the expansion wing to save nearly 17 percent more energy than the first phase.
Credit: Dennis Schroeder

"The overall goal is one building. However, one of the biggest differences between the initial project and the expansion is the ease of constructability," NREL Senior Research Engineer Shanti Pless said. "You don't often get to take everything you've learned in one building and immediately replicate it and improve it."

Even though the first phase of the RSF used many of the best construction practices and energy efficiency technologies available, both Macey and Pless have been impressed by the improvement in commercially available building systems for the RSF expansion.

"I've been surprised by how many things have gotten incrementally better — energy performance, thermal performance, and windows. That's usually tough when you are out there on the edge of what is commercially available," Macey said.

"As the design firm, we relished the opportunity to specify improved products for the RSF expansion," added Wendy L. Weiskopf, Interior Design Project Manager for RNL. "The product improvements that occurred during the short time since the completion of the project's first phase are truly impactful. Given the RSF's status as one of the nation's most energy efficient office buildings, increasing the efficiency for the project's expansion was a welcomed challenge."

Once of the more significant changes in the RSF expansion project is the windows. However, those changes won't affect the day-lit work spaces.

"The first RSF project had one of the most advanced window framing systems available," Pless said. "But, they can still get cool, especially on the north side of the building on the coldest days."

What design teams discovered while working on the RSF expansion design was two-fold. First, they could make the windows slightly smaller and not hurt the day lighting yet still help the thermal performance. Second, the thermal breaks could be improved to further slow cold air getting into the building from the windows.

"It's down to really fine details," Macey said. "In the first set of windows, there was a ‘key' that hooked the windows together and it was a piece of structural plastic. For the RSF expansion, it's a much larger ‘key', this time made with specially engineered fiberglass. It's that critical place where there's more material that acts as a big washer and stops the thermal transfer."

But according to Macey, small design changes such as this have a lasting impact when multiplied over the nearly 600 windows in the RSF expansion wing.
Solar Air Collector Shoulders More Work
Artist rendering of the coffee room with seating areas. Enlarge image

The coffee bar and lounge area in the RSF expansion will create an indoor canopy and provide seating for NREL staff breaks and impromptu meetings.
Courtesy of RNL

While many of the improvements to the RSF expansion will not be visible to people visiting the NREL campus, one change will be very apparent. The transpired solar air collector will be 50 percent larger on the south side of the expansion wing.

"The transpired solar air collector on RSF has been amazing," Macey said. "We modeled it for a 35 degree change in air temperature. It has regularly produced a 50 degree change in temperature when it heats the outside air being drawn into the building. It has become so reliable that it is a big piece of the expansion project."

Although the transpired solar air collector has exceeded expectations, it hasn't been needed too often thanks to a mild Colorado fall and winter. In the first six months the RSF has been in operation, the data center has provided enough waste heat so that the transpired solar collector has kicked on mostly for the sunny and really cold, sub-zero days. But there is no data center in the expansion, so the transpired solar air collector will be doing all of the work to warm the need fresh outside air.

A significant, but not visible, change is the one made to the thermal storage battery in the RSF basement — also known as the labyrinth. There are no interlaced structural concrete grade beams for thermal transfer in the crawl space of the RSF expansion.

"We were really conservative with the labyrinth design for the first phase of RSF because there was no commercially available software to tell us how to design one," Macey said. "We knew intellectually that warm air will transfer energy into something massive. What we found after we had it operating is that the energy transfer is direct and happens much faster than we imagined. So, there is no labyrinth in the RSF expansion. Instead, it has a large open concrete crawl space."
Users Make All the Difference
Photo of a building under construction on the NREL campus. Enlarge image

Natural gas pipe once again plays a "supporting role" as structural columns for the RSF expansion wing.
Credit: Dennis Schroeder

"Due to the flexibility designed into the first phase, office workspaces stayed very much the same in the RSF expansion," Weiskopf said.

Talking to engineers and designers alike, one theme stands out. Any building can be incredibly energy efficient, but if the staff does not "walk the talk," the energy savings will be diminished.

"We are studying how well the various occupants in RSF are using energy," Pless said. "We've got energy monitors in 12 work stations throughout the building to understand how people are using the energy efficient work stations.

"Occupant education has been key in all of this. People should understand that it is important for them to put their computer in standby mode when they leave. It is the easiest thing they can do to help save energy."

The great news is that the NREL staffers in the RSF so far are sticking to their "energy budget," which works out to only 55 watts per workstation. The staff has been doing a phased move in over the last few months. Soon the first RSF wings will be completely filled giving researchers an accurate picture of how the computer energy model matches real life.

"Our models have proven to be amazingly accurate so far, especially on the lighting," Pless said. "One interesting note from the computer energy modeling is that people are at their desk less than anticipated. They appear to be in meetings, in conference rooms, or on travel. The model assumed we had people sitting at their desk pretty much all day."

But then again, collaboration is an integral part of life in the RSF.

"The design team was able to cost-effectively add additional conferencing space in the RSF expansion, including the including conference rooms that enhance digital collaboration , which are proving to be a much needed and very successful space for employees," Weiskopf said.

Learn more about Sustainable NREL and the Research Support Facility.

The Research Support Facility (RSF) was designed by RNL and built by Haselden Construction, under a design-build, integrated project delivery method. Stantec served as sustainable design consultant and mechanical/electrical engineer.

The RSF will serve as a "living laboratory." The expansion includes the following technology and design improvements and enhancements:

* More efficient solar panels were purchased at a lower cost
* Less window area, while still fully day lighting office spaces
* Larger transpired collector, creating more "free" warmed air
* Better thermal breaks in the window frames, leveraging the latest in commercial windows and aluminum frames, driving down energy consumption and increasing comfort
* Hand crank operable windows, increasing user friendliness
* Automatically controlled outlets, simplifying energy savings for staff
* Displacement ventilation in conference rooms, improving thermal comfort
* Natural passive cooling in stair wells, vs. mechanical ventilation in the RSF
* Triple pane east/west curtain walls, as compared to double glazing in the RSF
* More flexible lighting controls with more lighting zones, allowing easier reconfiguration and enhanced user experience
* Additional use of LEDs, further reducing the installed lighting power density.
* Simplified labyrinth design and reduced costs through enhanced thermal modeling
* True vacancy sensors rather than switched occupancy sensors, simplifying lighting controls and occupant understanding of controls
* Day lighting controls in day-lit stairwells, allowing enhanced energy savings during the day.

Suntech Reports Big Q4 and $3B in 2010 Revenue, Stock Rallies

Record-setting revenue but a soft gross margin. Almost $1B in revenue in Q4, almost $3B for the year.

Suntech Reports Big Q4 and $3B in 2010 Revenue, Stock Rallies

Suntech Power Holdings (NYSE: STP), is the world's largest producer of solar panels and the Chinese firm just announced financial results for its fourth fiscal quarter and the full year 2010. The firm shipped 1.5 gigawatts for the year for a growth of 124.5 percent year-over-year and finished the year with a 17 percent gross profit margin and 16.2 percent for the quarter. Wall Street analysts will worry about the decrease in margins. A move towards upstream integration with a wafer production facility acquisition might temper analyst worries. Guidance shows good growth in revenue and margin for 2011.

Fourth Quarter 2010 Highlights

* Total net revenues were $945.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2010, representing growth of 27.1 percent sequentially and 61.9% year-over-year.
* Total PV shipments increased 19.8% sequentially and 87.3 percent year-over-year.
* Consolidated gross profit margin was 16.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Full Year 2010 Financial Highlights

* Total net revenues were $2,901.9 million in 2010, representing 71.4 percent growth year-over-year.
* Total PV shipments were 1,572 megawatts, representing 124.5 percent growth year-over-year.
* Consolidated gross profit margin was 17.4 percent.
* Suntech achieved 1.8 gigawatts of PV cell and module capacity, and 500 megawatts of silicon ingot and wafer capacity as of December 31, 2010.


Other 2010 Highlights

* Suntech was selected to supply a 150 megawatt (AC) project for Sempra Generation. We covered that 800,000 panel order win here.
* The firm closed its acquisition of a wafer production facility, In the fourth quarter, Suntech had $24 million in equity income from the wafer business.
* Suntech signed a framework agreement with Siemens Energy. Siemens has a pipeline to develop 80 megawatts of PV plants in six different countries.

Business Outlook

* In the first quarter of 2011, Suntech looks for PV shipments to be relatively flat compared with the fourth quarter of 2010.
* Due to the integration of wafer manufacturing capacity, consolidated gross margin in the first quarter of 2011 is expected to increase to approximately 20 percent.
* For the 2011 fiscal year, Suntech expects to ship at least 2.2 gigawatts of solar products and generate revenues of $3.4 billion to $3.6 billion.
* Consolidated gross margin for the full year 2011 is expected to be approximately 20 percent to 22 percent.
* Suntech expects to achieve 2.4 gigawatts of installed cell and module production capacity by the end of 2011.

Suntech shares rose to $9.60 in extended trade after closing at $9 on the New York Stock Exchange.



A Note on Margins

Here's the margin picture for Suntech over the past few years:
anImage

Here's a margin snapshot for Suntech and some of its sector and industry peers and direct competitors from December 2010. Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Company	TTM Gross Margin	TTM Operating Margin	TTM Net Margin
Suntech Power Holdings	19.3%	10.8%	(3%)
Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL)	31.7%	22%	14.1%
JA Solar Holdings (Nasdaq: JASO)	22.4%	17.1%	12.3%
MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE:WFR)	15.7%	(0.9%)	0.8%

At Cleantech Open

This year's Cleantech Open 2010 Business Competition winner, announced last week, is Puralytics, a company developing photochemical water purification products.

Since 2006, the Cleantech Open has offered a venue for competition among green tech start-up companies looking for funding. Winning alumni of the contest include Cool Earth Solar, Green Volts, and Micromidas.

This year's winner, Puralytics, is an Oregon-based start-up that uses natural sunlight or LED lighting as the catalysts to remove pathogens, petrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals from waste water. Its processes under development have applications for both industrial manufacturing facilities and small rural communities. Puralytics will receive $250,000 in a combination of cash and services from sponsor companies.

Runners up included EarthClean and OnChip Power.

Minnesota-based Earth Clean came up with what many would call a practical clean idea for fighting fires. The start-up has developed a fire suppressant called TetraKO. The water additive gel, which can be used in existing fire hoses for building fires or aerial spray systems for forest fires, is non-toxic to plants and wildlife, and completely biodegradable. When mixed with water, TetraKO creates a sticky substance that adheres to vertical surfaces as well as ceilings, which the company says improves fire suppression and reduces chances for rekindling. Upon prolonged exposure to heat, the substance evaporates as steam leaving no residue.

The other runner-up, which was also the Northeast Regional winner, is OnChip Power, a start-up based in Massachusetts that grew out of MIT. It makes miniature VHF power supply components. The company says its OnChip Power is "10x smaller size, 3x longer life, 20x faster response, 1/2 the component count."

"You know the brick on your laptop power cord? We make that thing the size of a quarter," OnChip Power Founder and CEO Vanessa Green said in a video interview backstage during the Cleantech Open awards ceremony in San Francisco on November 17.

The "People's Choice" winner, which receives $100,000 in services from sponsor companies to bring their idea to market, went to Silicon Solar Solutions. The Arkansas-based start-up is developing a process to reduce the amount of silicon needed to manufacture solar cells without sacrificing their efficiency.

Chevy Volt to pull combined 60 miles per gallon

General Motors today detailed the highly anticipated fuel economy label for the Chevy Volt, and it varies greatly depending on driving habits.

The EPA fuel economy label on the gas-electric Chevy Volt gives it a combined rating of 60 miles per gallon. There are separate ratings for electric-only driving, which is 93 "miles per gallon equivalent," and for gas-only driving, which is 37 miles per gallon.


On a full battery charge, the Chevy Volt, which GM hopes to start selling next month, drives about 35 miles. After that distance, a gas engine kicks in to run a generator that charges the battery.

In a call with reporters, GM executives took pains to point out that mileage will vary greatly depending on how frequently drivers recharge. "If you try to boil it down to a single number, it becomes quite difficult," said Tony DiSalle, Chevrolet product marketing director.

The Volt label provides additional information geared at showing the variety in miles per gallon and cost per mile a driver can expect. It shows that the cost per mile ranges from 4 cents per mile for 30 miles up to 9 cents per mile on gas only. Miles per gallon of gasoline can be as high as 168 mpg for a distance of 45 miles.

With the rating, the Volt qualifies as the best car in the compact-car category on fuel economy, and it rates relatively well on greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants.

Nissan on Monday announced that the all-electric Nissan Leaf will have a fuel economy rating of 99 mpg-equivalent. The Volt fuel economy in electric-only mode is 36 kilowatt hours per 100 miles, compared with 34 kilowatt hours per 100 miles for the Leaf.

Last year, GM announced that it expected to get 230 miles per gallon on city driving. Today, GM executives said that rating was based on an earlier methodology from the Environmental Protection Agency.

GM says that the electric range of the Volt will be between 25 miles and 50 miles depending on driving patterns, terrain, and weather conditions.

The Volt label is unique in that it provides more information than a typical fuel economy label. GM expects that potential buyers for the $41,000, four-person sedan will be willing to spend some time understanding how mileage can vary, said Doug Parks, Chevrolet Volt's global vehicle line executive.