DarkStealth

Solar's New Important Players: Chevron, Lockheed Martin

The cool thing is that some solar companies get this & are becoming vertical installers. SunPower has been in the utility-scale business for a while, and First Solar is buying their way into this business as well (by buying contracts from OptiSolar).

Spain Considers Raising Solar Installation Cap

With financial support from Spain & the US, it looks like the solar industry is heading in the right direction. When you factor in higher coal costs (at least from the railroads which ship the coal), lower costs per watt for solar panels, as well as transmission & siting issues limiting wind energy's growth in the US, it seems more utilities will be forced by their state renewable portfolio standards to invest in more solar, including utility-scale power plants (like the 850MW plant - the size of a large coal plant - that Sunpower & another company started building recently). How can you not be bullish on solar right now?

The Sharp Edge of Solar: Are Solar Stocks Cheap?

Solar is really simple once you understand it. First Solar has the cheapest panels & best balance sheet. SunPower has the best technology & the best business with utilities for the incredibly large scale (well, we should look at this newcomer OptiSolar, who I've never heard of until they announced their incredibly large deal (550MW!) in California). I'm not convinced the other solar companies will be around after a few years.

Isn't Sharp anything but a pure play? If you want to buy a company that mixes solar with some chip-making exposure, buy Cypress Semiconductor (who owns ~half of SunPower).