Thin Film PV

Weekly Intelligence Brief 16 February - 1 March Companies mentioned in this fortnightly round-up include: Global Solar Energy NREL Adam Capital LDK Solar Best Solar EPV First Solar ACORE Showa Shell

Global Solar Energy exceeds 13% milestone Arizona-based CIGS manufacturer Global Solar Energy has achieved 13.2 percent aperture area efficiency for its module in accordance with the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

It is the first manufacturer to exceed the 13 percent milestone using thin film on a flexible substrate.

"Global Solar Energy is the first company to exceed the 13 percent efficiency target using thin films on a flexible stainless steel substrate and joins a small number of PV companies who have met this high efficiency milestone for large thin film power modules " said Dr. Ryne P. Raffaelle Director of NREL's National Center for Photovoltaics. Raffaelle said that the result was remarkable given that the module was using standard production equipment and manufacturing processes at Global Solar Energy. The company has been selling CIGS thin-film products on a flexible substrate for more than six years applying the technology to different products including portable solar charges traditional glass modules and next generation building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) products. Adam Capital moves to California Bridge loan and investment capital firm for the solar sector Adam Capital has recently moved from its Arizona base to Sonoma California where the firm feels there will be a greater localized need for finance for developers of small commercial projects according to North Bay Business Journal. "Traditionally this is a difficult market to capitalize " said Adam Boucher founder and CEO of Adam Capital. "Banks are unwilling to loan on green technology and the rebates and tax incentives offered by the state and federal governments don't activate until the installation is complete. What's missing is a short-term phase to get the systems built." The company loans against credits and rebates offered by the federal government and the states of California and Arizona available for renewable-energy production. Boucher saw a financing gap in the market a few years ago and set up the firm. The firm provides loans of between $250 000 to $3m and installations of 200 kilowatts and below where projects are rebated in cash. "In Arizona the rebate and tax incentive programs are not as mature as they are in California nor are the utilities as enlightened " he said in the report. "When you add up investment tax credit grants and local rebates from PG&E we can often provide 100 percent or more of the cost of a renewable-energy project." "Our challenge is to educate developers about using investors such as ourselves to add value to their properties " said Boucher. LDK Solar Acquires module plant LDK Solar Co. Ltd. a manufacturer of multicrystalline solar wafers has entered into an agreement to acquire the crystalline module manufacturing plant of Best Solar Co. Ltd. Under the terms of the deal LDK Solar will acquire Best Solar's crystalline module manufacturing plant at a cash consideration of $21.5m. This acquisition will significantly enhance LDK Solar's position in the downstream PV market " stated Jack Lai Executive Vice President Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of LDK Solar. "LDK Solar has been fulfilling the majority of its solar module needs through purchases from Best Solar over the past three quarters." Best Solar is wholly owned by LDK New Energy Holding Limited which is LDK Solar's controlling shareholder and wholly owned by Mr. Xiaofeng Peng Chairman and CEO of LDK Solar. The terms of the agreement have been reviewed and approved by LDK Solar and Best Solar on an arms-length basis using the fair market value of the acquired assets. The fair market value was determined by a valuation analysis performed by a third party independent valuer and approved by LDK Solar's management team and Audit Committee. Best Solar has undertaken not to engage and therefore compete with LDK Solar in the module business after this transaction is completed. EPV files for Ch 11 EPV Solar Inc. a Robbinsville New Jersey-based designer developer manufacturer and marketer of low-cost amorphous silicon ("a-Si") thin-film photovoltaic solar modules voluntarily filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection according to netdocketsblog.com.

EPV issued $77.5m in senior secured convertible notes maturing in June 2010 to help finance its growth expansion plan of making and supplying . low-cost a-Si thin-film PV modules predominately to large solar farms. However solar farms were unable to raise financing and sales did not materialise. According to find an acquirer EPV negotiated short-term bridge financing in November from Patriarch Partners Agency Services LLC in the form of a $3.6m senior secured term loan said the report. "EPV entered into definitive agreements with Akart Anerji Yatirimlari A.S. pursuant to which Akart would acquire substantially all of EPV's assets for an aggregate purchase price of $52.5m. "The sale was supposed to close by January 15 2010 however Akart was unable to secure sufficient financing to consummate the transaction. "As a result EPV could not repay Patriarch by the bridge financing's maturity. "Patriarch declared an event of default and provided EPV with a Notice of Disposition of Collateral and scheduled an auction of EPV's assets for March 5 2010." First Solar chairman and senior execs sell and buy shares First Solar Inc. saw several of its senior officers sell and buy shares between 22-26 February which was one of four

 of its annual trading windows. In addition to 16 section officers Executive Chairman Michael Ahearn sold 1.5 million shares of First Solar common stock in the open market in furtherance of a personal diversification plan and continues to own over 1.5 million shares in the company. Chief Executive Officer Rob Gillette purchased 10 000 shares of First Solar common stock in the open market with his personal funds at a reported $1.05m and Executive Vice President of Marketing and Product Management TK Kallenbach purchased 1 000 shares in the open market with his personal funds for a reported $103 000. "First Solar's management team has confidence in the 2010 financial guidance we gave on Feb. 18 as well as the company's prospects for long-term growth " said Gillette. According to SEC files and stock tracking blog seekingalpha.com Michael Ahearn former CEO and current Executive Chairman sold $142.1m in company stock between the 22nd and 24th. He sold a further $20.7m on the 25th and 26th. "Two First Solar executives stepped up to the plate and bought shares the current CEO and an EVP " said the site. "While FSLR made no official announcement of Ahearn's earlier sales the company was prompt in announcing the in-house purchases alongside Ahearn's second set of sales " said a

 site blogger. US installed PV megawatts to reach 16 000 by

 2012 Mike Eckhart president of ACORE (American Council of Renewable Energy) has said at

 a

 recent

 industry event

 that the US is "laggard" in solar compared to Germany which had 2000 MW of new solar capacity installed in 2009. However he is confident that with new budget subsidies the US will be

 able

 match the market leader. The Department of Energy's stated goal is that by 2025 25% of the energy generated in the US will be from renewable resources. At a state level 29 local governments have already mandated that local utilities source a certain percentage of the energy they create from those same resources. In late November Eckhart and ACORE conducted a policy meeting in the Cannon Caucus room at the US House of Representatives formulating a policy framework that could start the country on that energy roadmap. ACORE has determined that the US will need to invest between $30bn and $35bn to attain that 25% goal. In 2008 $18bn was invested in energy projects with 50% in renewable energy according to the report. At the recent CDMA event Mark Thirsk managing partner with Linx Consulting forecast that the number of installed photovoltaic (PV) megawatts will climb from 6000 in 2008 to nearly 16 000 by 2012 with the US and China vying to overtake Germany as market leader.

Showa Shell opens offices; expects its aperture area to reach 15% by 2014 Showa Shell Solar K.K. a 100% subsidiary of Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. will open two overseas offices this April in Northern California and Munich to facilitate one gigawatt per year of sales and delivery of its proprietary CIS solar panels to customers worldwide. The move will be accompanied by a global branding consolidation under a single name Solar Frontier (the original name of its international sales subsidiary) and a new logo. "We chose Solar Frontier as the name of our international division a few years ago because we knew we stood at the frontier of the photovoltaic industry in terms of research and development " said CEO Shigeaki Kameda. "With CIS solar technology our PV modules today combine compelling economics non-toxic materials lower energy consumption in production increasingly higher efficiency and greater potential for tomorrow. "With this announcement we signal our commitment and capacity to set and supply the new global standard for photovoltaic panels into the future starting with the European and North American office expansions." Solar Frontier's Director of International Business Brooks Herring said that with its third plant opening in Miyazaki Japan in 2011--the world's largest CIS production facility at 900MW—the company will be able to offer the full benefits of economy of scale to its customers. "Our gigawatt scale capacity is an engineering decision as well as an economic decision because this is what we can do today for maximum production efficiency and minimum energy payback time " said Kameda. "Moreover our panel efficiency will continue to climb toward the aperture area efficiency of 16.0% on a 30cm x 30cm module we achieved recently in our laboratories. "While the aperture area efficiency of panels coming off of the assembly line today are at a competitive efficiency of around 13.0% we expect to reach 14.2% when our third plant starts operating in 2011 and approach 15.0% by 2014."

 Weekly Intelligence Brief 16 February - 1 March Companies mentioned in this fortnightly round-up include:

 Global Solar Energy NREL Adam Capital LDK Solar Best Solar EPV First Solar ACORE Showa Shell"