Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) Prices to get support from New Jersey Legislators
January 9, 2012Investment Banking Job Carnage continues as Bank of America Fires 20% of its Asian Managing Directors
January 9, 2012Saving bankrupt solar companies has become the national pasttime of most governments it seems. Competition in the solar market has become so severe that solar comapnies are failing left and right. This has made the government come out to save them with bailouts which only make the oversupply situation in the solar panel industry worse. While China is the worst culprit supporting hundreds of failing solar companies through cheap loans which will be never paid back, other governments are not far behind.
Sunpower has been saved by Total which is somewhat of an exception as it a a Big private Oil Company.S olon the German solar module company which failed last month was earlier given a bailout by the German government last year. France has not learned the lesson of investing good money behind a lost cause.It is preparing to help Photowatt a subsidiary of the failing Canadian Company ATS. The solar module company is just not able to compete with super cheap Chinese solar panels.T he French government will help the company alongwith a private partner for which bidding has started.17 companies are bidding majority of which are Chinese solar companies.
Excerpts of my previous articles
LDK Solar is one of the most insolvent companies in the world right now with billions of dollars in debt,a battered balance sheet,continuing losses and dodgy accounting.However LDK has acquired a German company Sunways and continues to build new solar power plants as the Chinese state owned banks continue to fund it with cheap money without any consideration about losing their investments.LDK has become the poster boy of the Solarworld complaint against Chinese solar panel producers as it continues to run and thrive despite being insolvent.The Chinese government is hurting itself and its other solar companies like Trina,Yingli which are more competitive by continuing to support and increase the global glut of cheap solar panels.These solar panels are being clearly sold at below cost as most of the companies would be bankrupt without these absurd loans which make no free market sense
German Solar Energy Company Sunways has sold a 33% stake to LDK solar for around 2 million euros .Note most small German solar companies are almost insolvent and have no hopes of turnaround.Around 5000 German solar companies have closed according to BSW.Some big German companies like Solon and Solar Millennium have already announced bankruptcy.Note Chinese companies too would have shut down but the state owned Chinese banks are keeping them alive with loans at ridiculous interest rates.LDK which is buying Sunways is almost insolvent as well with its convertibles trading at less than 50c on the dollar in Singapore.It has more than n$3 billion in debt compared to its market cap of around $600 million.It faces massive losses in the coming qtrs and can’t serve the interest payments much less expand.
Free Market in the new Green Industries like Solar Energy are a myth as Asian government give billions of dollars in free money in supporting their domestic companies at the expense of other