Taiwan and South Korean Companies have been making massive investments in the Solar Energy Space through both greenfield and brownfield expansion.South Korean Hanhwa has used the greenfield route by buying up a 49.99% stake in 4th largest Chinese solar producer Solarfun while global foundry leader TSMC has bought equity stakes in Stion and Motech.Samsung and […]
South Korean Conglomerate Hanwha subsidiary Hanwha Chemicals has taken a controlling 49.99% stake buying 36 million shares fro m Solarfun at $10.72 (4.6% premium) and the complete shareholding of promoters Good Energies (controls German Q-Cells as well ) and Chairman Mr. Yonghua Lu .Solarfun is the 4th largest Chinese company which has been executing well on a vertical integration strategy.
a-Si technology has much lower efficiency in the range of 7-9% compared to the mainstream crystalline solar technology.a-Si cost advantages over the c-Si technology has also disappeared with falling polysilicon costs.This makes a-Si only feasible for utility sized plants as a-Si’s larger area requirements makes unsuitable for residental and commercial segments.The IPP JV is a good move as it will provide captive demand for Sharp’s a-Si modules.
Spain has been in the media spotlight for its proposed retroactive solar subsidy cuts which were strongly opposed by the Solar Industry Association in Spain.These Feed in Tariff Cuts would come on guaranteed electricity payments to solar plants installed during the Solar boom in 2007 and 2008.Pension funds and other financial investors in these renewable […]
SMC seems to have made a strategic call to focus on the thin film Cadmium Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGs) Technology instead of the mainstream crystalline silicon (c-Si) technology.Note CIGs technology is the most promising thin film technology with yields much higher than the other technologies like Cadmium Tellurium (CdTe) used by First Solar and amorphous Silicon (a-Si) which was used by AMAT’s Subfab division.
According to the German Federal Agency,Germany added 1.7 GW of Solar Energy in the month of June.This bring the cumulative installed capacity for 2010 to 3.4 GW capacity compared to the 3.8 GW capacity installed in the entire 2009.The reduction in Feed in Tariffs in July 2010 has propelled the developers to finish all the projects by June 30 in order to qualify for the much higher electricity rates.