Solar Light Flashes: February 10, 2008
Select Photovoltaic News Tidbits
This is the first Solar Light Flashes of 2008. Somehow, I didn’t have anything to report on a company name starting with the letter “S”, the most popular first letter for “s”olar companies.
An AE Polysilicon DEP Resolution concerning a sewer module was approved at a Special Meeting of the Falls Township Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, January 22, 2008. An online video of the vote on AE Polysilicon resolution 08-06 is available at the Falls Township Board Of Supervisors Meeting - January 22, 2008. Click on:
Part 1 of 1 - 6:32pm to 6:57pm (timestamp range 6:54:54 to 6:56:45)
and allow the video to load before advancing the time index unless you find the political squabbling between Supervisor Vislosky and Board Chairman Robert Harvie, Jr. (or see Harvie) amusing.
What is the relevance of this regulatory trivia? In the wake of REC ASA - Silicon expansion project - delay and cost overrun or Polysilicon Plant Costs On the Rise by Jennifer Kho at Greentech Media, it seems almost impossible for AE Polysilicon Corporation to begin production by the end of 2008.
APWR
The old AstroPower stock symbol now belongs to A-Power Energy Generation Systems, Ltd. (NASDAQ:APWR). This company does not have a website and was formerly named Chardan South China Acquisition Corp., a Blank Check IPO by Chardan Capital. See this BARRON’s article, Blind-Pool Danger by Leslie P. Norton, for unflattering background on the management behind this Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation (SPAC).
I noticed recent online news reported under this stock symbol has been confused with AstroPower.
Green Light blog at Greentech Media
The post SunPower and First Solar: Two Men Enter. One Man Leaves. by Daniel Englander seems long on provocation and short on arguments. First, I don’t see near term competition between SunPower and First Solar as a zero sum game. Each company’s technology can thrive in photovoltaic applications depending on the specifics of the installation size, area, and location. And any thin film threat as cited from Nanosolar or Sharp to First Solar is an even greater threat to SunPower because of their higher cost per Watt silicon solar cells. SunPower is not “a vertically integrated poly producer” as Mr. Englander states and needs polysilicon prices to decline just to keep up with First Solar and maintain their gross margins. Exploiting their own increasing returns to scale, First Solar can continue to lower their variable manufacturing costs and defend their industry leading cost position.
Thomson Financial chimes in on the First Solar versus SunPower debate in this YouTube video, Squawkbox: On The Radar 01-25-08.
GUNTHER Portfolio is also among the featured blogs at Greentech Media.
Invest in Germany has revamped their website as noted in Newsletter Issue 01/2008. The "Incentives" - Brochure by Invest in Germany looks useful to companies interested in locating in Germany. The last new publication in the Photovoltaics Industry Downloads area remains Fast Track - Photovoltaics as reported in Schmid Silicon Technology: From East Germany with Polysilicon.
In the Jobs & Careers section, there is an opening for a Manager/Senior Manager Renewable Energies & Resources. For those with a long term vision, this position has proven to be a spring board to lucrative opportunities in the renewable energy industry.
NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
In this YouTube video, Dr. Lawrence Kazmerski, Director of the National Center for Photovoltaics (NCPV) at NREL, delivers an entertaining and informative lecture on Photovoltaics: At the Tipping Point at Vanderbilt University on December 3, 2007.
PHOTON International
Cheers to PHOTON International, The Photovoltaic Magazine, for posting articles to their website on a regular basis in 2008. With a massive database of articles, I always thought this would be a great way to leverage their content and entice new subscribers via the teaser content page for the latest issue.
A new report by Denis Lenardic:
Large-Scale Photovoltaic Power Plants
Cumulative and Annual Installed Power Output Capacity
pvresources.com
Annual Report 2007
can be downloaded from the pvresources.com homepage by clicking on the Annual Report 2007 link.
Per this Photovoltaic Technology About Us:
PV-Tech independently collects and disseminates news and in-depth technical information exclusively for PV manufacturers.
Since this publication showed potential, I added it to my SOLAR LINKS. But what is with the .org designation? Non-profit organizations are the main users of the .org (dot-org) domain, and PV-Tech.org is a for profit company operated by the Henley Media Group. Over a period of one month, PV-Tech.org failed to respond to my emails asking about the .org domain though they did find the time to trumpet themselves in PV-Tech.org - building a sustainable future one cell at a time.
In The INQUIRER Guide to Modern 21st Century Journalism, Mike Magee shares seven (7) Modern Journalist Rules that true journalists and Bloggers alike will find amusing.
Labels: AE Polysilicon, Chardan, First Solar, Greentech Media, IiG, NREL, PHOTON, PV-Tech, SunPower
posted by Edgar A. Gunther at 10:22 PM
1 Comments:
So what's the latest news from Advent? They shut down in September to retool...that's going on almost 6 months now...seems like a long time to go down for a tooling change....yes...I know the new wafers are bigger but since the equipment was sized for it and they should have been able to run non-production quantities to verify the process it is very strange that they still appear to be down?
Strange....Oh well...who knows...maybe we will soon hear about a complete change in strategy.
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