This Week in Renewable Energy

This is a weekly update of this series on renewable energy industry following last week's Seven New Developments in Renewable Energy.

1. Taiwan based Digitimes reported that the Chinese government plans to give 2 billion yuan ($291 million) to each of the leading solar wafer makers to consolidate small players in the industry. Speculation that consolidation in Chinese PV wafer makers and PV panel makers is happening now. Wafer makers include LDK solar (LDK) and Renesola (SOL); while PV panel makers include Suntech Power (STP), Yinglin Green (YGE), China Sunergy (CSUN), Trina Solar (TSL), Canadia Solar (CSIQ), JA Solar (JASO) etc.
2. Over the weekend, Sina.com news reported that a 30% workforce cut is coming to Suntech power. The report also said CEO Shi predicts very low gross margins for Q4. The company is expected to report on Q4 in Feb. 2009.
3. Suntech Power Holdings has reached capacity to produce 1 gigawatt of solar panels a year. However, company CEO Shi also said an oversupply of panels in the world market would likely lead to a 25 percent to 30 percent drop in Suntech panel prices in 2009.
4. A-power (APWR) energy generation held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its largest wind turbine facility in China. The wind turbine facility, strategically located in the city of Shenyang, is the largest in China, with total annual production capacity of over 1,125MW of wind turbines. The company is also expected to announce a new CFO in the coming weeks.
5. Castle & Cooke Inc. of Hawaii has officially finished building Hawaii's largest single-site solar farm on Lanai. The $19 million, 1.2-megawatt La Ola Solar Farm is expected to supply up to 30 percent of Lanai's electricity.
6. Solar and wind industries said last Friday that tax credits passed just three months ago to increase investment in renewable energy have lost much of their effectiveness amid a global economic downturn and should be reworked in Congress.
7. Evergreen Solar (ESLR) closed its Marlboro facility and will incur up to $30.4 million in related costs.

Disclosure: Long STP.

Comments

[Ricard:]

I nearly bought the hype - 1) is pure speculation. According to Taiwanese industrial sources, China MIGHT plan to spend the money...

Jan 12 10:59 AM

[Nick the Gr...:]

COMMENTS TO: THE PROCLAIMER (A significant contributor to Seeking Alpha blog)

O.K. The Proclaimer. You are reading between the lines; clever. Seeking Alpha? You are ON. It is a lot more involved than just a quest for a max-out by brainstorming and reengineering the Laws of Physics and Thermodynamics and Hydraulics, to arrive at "Zero Point Energy", not limited to the DOE dream of a Novel “Energy Storage” by a magic, fostering “Near-Zero O&M, as well as aiming to deliver power to the grid at less than 6 cents/kWh. As to a process, cheaper than all fossil fuels, stand alone, as well as any renewable, not limited to uranium as a fuel, YES, there is; a Super Hybrid Facility, comprised of multi-components, scavenging each other produced energy’s residual, being equal to produced energy, fostered by the Recovered (virtually free) Energy Components, that can produce electric power at less than 4 cents/kWh. No other fossil fuel can do that. Also, YES there is a process that can beat by a mile the O&M of the SWRO (Seawater Desalination by Reverse Osmosis), again “scavenged (free) recovered sources”, both in BTU, Heat Rate, Condensation Capacity’s Factor, et al, all the way of producing crop’s irrigation water, that is there times cheaper.
However, that is only a part thereof of what I am talking about. I am going to quiz you, and welcome your interrogatory in return. (YES, I am one of these Socrates brain child 65 years of age, aiming to deliver Super Alpha and I will, together with out team and participants).
Q. Is the wholesale price, on the open market, for tomatoes over $1/lbs?
Q. Can a Super Hybrid Facility, fully integrated and in synergy with crops (tomatoes) production facility, utilizing far more advanced than organic and hydroponic process, deliver 50 lbs/square feet of tomatoes (6-cuts/year), at O&M cost of less than 15%, (EBITDA at 67%)?
Q. Is the maximum/minimum Market Price Referent for wholesale electric power at over $92/mWh and as low as $42/mWh, respectively?
Q. Is the maximum/minim wholesale rate for the process water (potable at another rate) commodity at $1,880/acre-feet and as low as $330/acre-feet, respectively?
Q. Can just 500 hectares of tomato super-greenhouses (latest inventions, a lot more protected by other means than by a Patent Pending), integrated and in synergy with a Super Hybrid Facility, yields $570 million/year in revenue, at O&M cost of less than $85 million/year, having a total development cost of less than $100 million (you need over 1,000MWe coal-fired power plant to generate such revenue, however at O&M cost of over $300 million, [cost of coal, transportation, sequestration, et al myriads and at a development costs of not less than $500 million] )?
Q. Where is the lowest farm labor cost, say $11/day, to grow, produce and deliver tomato to the US Markets?
Q. Do you think that above COMPLEX can be develop for 3-times less than any fossil fuel/SWRO plants?
Q. Which Regulatory in which country will kiss your ass to bring them all of herein above (Exuberant Tax Revenue for them, on their platform’s standards)?
Q. Why, even the GE’ CEO, said “It is a Hell to get anything done in US, so we’ll do it elsewhere”?
Q. Do you think that above processes are not environmentally friendly?
Q. Do you think that above is not in the process of being implemented and without any participation by any of Seeking Alpha folks, nor from any one, not limited to “Zero-Gov-Subsidy”?
Until the next round, if any, Respectfully, Nick the Greek Socrates.

Jan 12 02:47 PM

[gebby:]

stp also said they cut workforce every year at this time due to seasonal factors. (weather in europe) this is normal management for stp. so dont read too much negativity into the workforce reduction.

Jan 13 08:47 AM

[billp37:]

Fast Neuton writes

"From actual experience, wind farms produce 1.2 watts per square meter. Solar Thermal and Photovoltaic methods capture 5 to 6 watts per square meter. There is no economy of size in either technology. Dividing the watts you need by those values gives the land area in square meters needed to produce the juice. The numbers are astronomical."

www.topix.net/forum/so...

I write

"There is a LOT OF MONEY to be made developing and selling alternate generation facilities to those who do not understand the laws of thermodynamics, HEAT RATE, and CAPACITY FACTOR. "

Jan 13 09:01 AM

[frflyer:]

billb37

When talking about the land that wind farms use, you need to realize that they don't actually use all the land they are sited on.
The turbines have to be spread out so they don't interfere with each other's wind.
I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I think I remember reading that they only use about 2 1/2% of the land. That means they can coexist with agriculture.

I don't think any large wind farms are being sold without the realization of capacity factor. Yes wind has a capacity factor of 35-40%. So you would need about 300 MW to replace the power from 120MW of coal power. I don't see that as a game stopper.
Power is power and the grid needs all of it. As long as the power from wind and PV can be stored or shunted around the grid to whereand when it is needed, what does it matter if it isn't there 24/7?
Many existing power plants don't run all day, in fact many only run 20% of the time as peaker plants or load following plants.

Biofuels are said to produce 10,000 to 18,000 miles per acre.
Solar thermal plants could produce 2 million miles per acre.

The numbers for the land needed for solar plants may seem astronomical, but so is the land used for coal mining and coal plants. It's been said that solar thermal plants with heat storage could power the whole country with less land than now used by the coal and coal power industries. And coal only provides half of the country's power!

Jan 13 12:37 PM

[nakedjaybird:]

Fast neutron - the way you think we should not build any homes cause all they do is use energy.

If you've got the rooftops and land, build 'em. The juice is free; whatever the efficiency.

Jan 13 01:06 PM