Solarvalue secures TDR Facility for Solar Grade Silicon Production

Completes return to strategy before the Adjusted Business Plan

On the heels of Solarvalue AG: Financial Measures Ensure Further Growth (Deutsch) announcing an increase of share capital by 210,000 shares, Solarvalue AG (XETRA:SV7) subsidiary Solarvalue Proizvodnja d.d. has purchased a significant portion of the TDR factory in Ruše, Slovenia, larger than the previous lease back arrangement. Solarvalue also took on over sixty (60) TDR employees. See the press release Solarvalue Buys Production Plant in Slovenia (Deutsch) for the official announcement. Solarvalue AG holds 60% of the Solarvalue Proizvodnja d.d. shares, and Moser Baer Photo Voltaic Limited (MBPV) holds the balance of 40%.

Although the TDR press release talks about a blast furnace, I confirmed with John Mott this should have said submerged arc furnace. There isn’t even a blast furnace at the TDR Facility! With the purchase, Solarvalue will be able to consolidate operations in the Ferrochrome and the M1 furnace buildings shortening material transfers for raw materials and molten silicon metal. This development also opens up avenues of previous speculation mentioned in this Blog.

Per the decision at the Annual General Meeting, Solarvalue will issue 210,000 new shares by no later than August 2007. Existing shareholders have a right of first refusal to purchase one (1) new share for each four (4) shares they own now. Another 365,700 shares have been authorized for issue. In addition, convertible or warrant linked bonds or both have been authorized for issue up to €15 million.

And John Mott has a new Blog entry, Silicon – the Second Most Abundant Element on Earth since I noted the prior inactivity in Solar Light Flashes: June 11, 2007.

Solar Light Flashes: June 11, 2007

Quick Photovoltaic News Tidbits

I decided to revive the Light Flashes from last September and prefix Solar to satisfy the search engines. Solar Light Flashes will provide an ad hoc channel for the various factoids and observation pairs I stumble upon during my research for posts. Most of these factoids do not justify a complete post; combined I expect them to be informative.

This post is arranged in alphabetical order, and the company name or topic links back to my last significant related post.

Blue Square Energy (BSE):
BSE has been busy rounding out the team by hiring a CFO, Janis Studer Joins Blue Square Energy as Chief Financial Officer. And president and CEO Jeffrey Barnett was the presenter for Blue Square Energy to Present at the Jefferies 3rd Annual Global Clean Technology Conference although his presentation was not webcast. These moves would seem to indicate preparation for raising private equity capital or for an IPO.

GreenVolts:
GreenVolts launched a new home landing page in conjunction with the Business 2.0 Magazine article, Big Solar's day in the sun by Todd Woody. This article generated a maelstrom of search hits on the Blog looking for background on GreenVolts.

Moser Baer Photo Voltaic Limited (MBPV):
MBPV announces commercial shipment of solar photovoltaic cells and claims firm customer orders and MoUs exceeding US$100 million. In addition, MBPV expects their photovoltaic solar cells to have conversion efficiencies up to 15.5%. I guess that means at least one cell has achieved this conversion efficiency?

Nanosolar:
In Nanosolar loses chief scientist, Michael Kanellos blogs that Chris Eberspacher has left the firm. Does this mean there are problems with Nanosolar’s technology, disagreements with Nanosolar CEO Martin Roscheisen, or a transition from research and development to mass production and operations? Per Mr. Roscheisen:

Chris decided to leave, basically realizing that we now have a ton of really talented and passionate engineers on our team who know their respective areas so well that there's really not much for Chris to contribute. We remain on friendly terms with Chris and appreciate his pioneering a lot of the early science in CIGS.

NJCEP:
The NEW Market Managers have cranked out updated CORE Queue > 10kw June 7, 2007 (greater than 10kW) and CORE Queue <= 10kw June 8, 2007 (less than or equal to 10kW) almost every month. Debuting for the first time is the Public Non K-12 Schools CORE Queue May 31, 2007.

Solarvalue:
After five trilingual posts in NEWS FROM RUSE - THE BLOG (Deutsch, Slovensko), John Mott hasn’t updated the Blog since April 30, 2007. I guess John is too busy preparing TDR Ruse for Solar Grade Silicon production, but I am still jealous of his trilingual writing skills.

My accreditations have been approved and my travel arrangements are set for the Solar Promotion PV Industry Forum 2007 and Intersolar 2007. Thin films, Concentrating PhotoVoltaics (CPV), and Rural Electrification are the focus of the 3rd PV Industry Forum program this year in Freiburg im Breisgau.

Solarvalue goes “Back to the Future” with Moser Baer Photo Voltaic partnership

Solarvalue AG flip flops on going it alone and finds a Silicon partner

First, a correction to my post, Moser Baer PV invests in Solarvalue AG, is required. This transaction should be described as MBPV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Moser Baer India Limited (BOM:517140), has acquired a 40% stake in Solarvalue Proizvodnja d.d., with Solarvalue AG (XETRA:SV7) retaining 60% ownership. Per the joint presentation:

Moser Baer will do a significant investment as a shareholder in this project. The acquisition will guarantee MBPV an assured supply of high grade solar wafers and help Solarvalue increase the production capabilities of its silicon production plant in Ruse.

The presentation is available on the Solarvalue AG website at:

Partnership with Moser Baer PV: press conference during the PHOTON Technology Show in Munich

In typical Solarvalue style, the amount of MBPV’s investment or the price of the 40% stake in Solarvalue Proizvodnja d.d. (perhaps they are one and the same?) were not disclosed. I suspect MBPV has committed to a staged investment of funds as Solarvalue achieves specific, objective milestones. Per my first, exclusive Solarvalue post, Secretive solar start-up, Solarvalue AG, reveals solar grade silicon production plans through joint venture bid for TDR-Metalurgija in Ruse, Slovenia, the first obvious milestone is:

After they upgrade or augment the TDR d.d. facilities with refining furnaces, Solarvalue will need to develop a stable process and deliver sample production SGS material to solar wafer and cell partners for qualification.

As I blogged in Solarvalue discusses plans and process:

“In the first six months, strategic investors will provide €20 million for setting up the production of solar grade silicon,” said Strategy Advisor Joerg Duske. One strategic investor from India has a technology expertise focus, while the second strategic investor from Europe is obtaining a stake in the TDR Ruse plant to secure silicon for solar cell production. An additional €10 million investment will be required in 2008 to complete the 4,400 metric ton capacity ramp. Later, Solarvalue may forward integrate ingot and wafer production from solar grade silicon at the TDR facility in Ruse, Slovenia.

Despite Solarvalue’s revised capital investment estimate of €10 million, my guesstimate (estimated guess) is MBPV’s first stage investment is from €5 to €10 million and their total commitment is from €20 to €30 million as factory conversion and production milestones are achieved.

Other important terms of the deal were absent. Does MBPV have an obligation to purchase 40% of annual solar grade silicon production and at what price? Is the price at or below (or above?) €40 per kilogram? Does MBPV have an option or right of first refusal to purchase additional solar grade silicon? I have a strong suspicion there may be unarticulated aspects to the MBPV investment including access, licensing, or a joint venture to bring the Solarvalue Solar Grade Silicon process to India =if= all goes well with the investment.

I reviewed John Mott’s presentation, “Metallurgical Grade Silicon and Solarvalue’s Solar Grade Silicon Procedure”, at PHOTON EXPO’s 4th Solar Silicon Conference, and I noticed the following off message line from the usual claim of 4,400 metric tons:

End of 2008: Capacity for 5,000+ metric tonnes of SGS

Innocent oversight or is this part of the answer to Solarvalue: What ever happened to the M5 arc furnace? The M5 arc furnace was not mentioned in John’s presentation.

Solarvalue shares almost hit €35 in trading after this investment was announced. Don’t forget, Solarvalue still has an undefined Price to Earnings ratio.

Check out the promotional video or VIDEOCLIP on the Solarvalue website at http://www.solarvalue.com/content/index.html and click on the movie projector icon. Or here is a direct link, http://www.solarvalue.de/filme/008_master.swf, I got from the page source. I think the video is a bit over produced, and the soundtrack is a cross between The Terminator and Donald Trump’s The Apprentice “reality” TV program.

And thanks to the folks on the Solarvalue discussion board over at Wallstreet Online (http://www.wallstreet-online.de) for linking to my Blog posts. I appreciate the added Blog traffic.

Moser Baer PV reveals Solaria Supercell

At joint press conference between Solarvalue AG and Moser Baer Photo Voltaic Limited (MBPV)

I was taking a quick look at the press materials, and Moser Baer PV presented a few slides on their Photovolaltaic strategy. I expect Solarvalue will place this presentation on their website soon.

The Solaria Supercell has a striking similarity to the Stellaris technology presented at 19th NREL Industry Growth Forum. This photo is also on the MBPV website Technology page.

Per the grainy diagram from the presentation which I presume relates to Solaria, strips of thin film are used by this low concentration approach, not multicrystalline silicon. I will examine this in further detail later. Also, please see my previous post, Solaria spills low concentration photovoltaic technology at Symposium.

Moser Baer PV invests in Solarvalue AG

I just happened to the see the news when I checked my email. For now, I want to point out my prediction about a possible partnership with Moser Baer in Solarvalue discusses plans and process. I haven't been doing well on the speculation/prediction front in recent posts. Here is a link to the press release, Solarvalue AG and Moser Baer PV Announce Partnership (Deutsch).

This explains the run up in the Solarvalue shares in advance of the announcement. It also explains the renewed interest of W&P Profil in metallurgical silicon production with M5 per Solarvalue: What ever happened to the M5 arc furnace?