Riding the 'Solarcoaster' as Shares Plunge Even More Than Coal
Joe Ryan & Brian Eckhouse for Bloomberg: For all the upbeat forecasts about the growth of solar power, this is a punishing year for the industry. And it won’t improve anytime soon.
SunEdison Inc., the world’s biggest clean-energy company, is bankrupt. Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., once the top panel maker, warned it may be inching toward default. And SolarCity Corp., the largest U.S. rooftop installer, plunged as much as 27 percent Tuesday after scaling back its installation forecast for the third time in seven months.
They’re not alone. A Bloomberg index of 20 major solar companies has slumped more than 30 percent this year. Soaring installations and growing global demand for clean energy is being trumped by investor concerns that the debt-fueled strategies employed by SunEdison, Yingli and SolarCity are endemic to the industry and dangerous for shareholders.
“They call it the solarcoaster for a reason,” said Nancy Pfund, managing partner of DBL Partners and a SolarCity director. With so much happening, both positive and negative, “it’s been hard for investors to follow.”
At a time when falling prices, renewed U.S. tax breaks and the Paris climate deal are fueling solar sales worldwide, solar shares are performing even worse than coal stocks. Cont'd...
WINAICO partners with Springers Solar and Enphase Energy to bring solar solutions to new real estate development in Queensland
WINAICO partners with Springers Solar and Enphase Energy to install world-leading 310W monocrystalline PERC modules on the sales office of the newest North Harbour residential development in Burpengary, Queensland, Australia. This presents an opportunity to add the latest Enphase and WINAICO technologies on up to 2200 new residential homes.
Is Tesla Entering a New Frontier?
Efficient low-cost batteries are the new frontier and the new frontier is here now from all-electric vehicles to home energy systems.
Why Firing David Crane was a Huge Mistake
Its our opinion that neither performance nor profits were really to blame- but the industry itself. They simply shot the messenger.
Emerging markets surge ahead of European renewables powerhouses for energy investment attractiveness
- Investors increasingly focused on markets like Chile, Mexico, Morocco and Egypt
- Scaled-back renewable energy ambitions dampen Europe's investment potential
- Greater global capital flows blurs the investment line between developed and developing markets
China's Guangdong Province Party Secretary Makes Historic Visit to Ballard Headquarters
Ballard Power Systems today hosted the Party Secretary of China's Guangdong Province, Mr. Hu Chunhua and his delegation, together with the Honorable Teresa Wat, B.C. Minister of International Trade and Minister Responsible for the Asia Pacific Strategy and Multiculturalism and other dignitaries at the company's headquarters facility.
Solar Cell "Wonder Material"-Perovskite-Falls Short of Expectations
Hugh Cowley for Scientific American: Perovskites have arguably transformed solar energy more in the last few years than other technologies have in decades. But British researchers have called into question optimistic predictions of undiscovered perovskites.
Hybrid perovskites are a mix of organic and inorganic ions with the same crystal structure as calcium titanium oxide (CaTiO3). Halide perovskites are a subset of these structures containing halide ions such as fluoride or chloride. Iodide perovskites such as methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) can convert sunlight to electricity.
Researchers use a decades-old geometric 'tolerance factor' to propose new combinations of ions that will form stable perovskites. Now, Robert Palgrave and his team at University College London, UK, have reassessed the validity of the tolerance factor in predicting new hybrid perovskite structures. Cont'd...
ViZn Energy Systems Receives Industry-Wide Recognition from Leading Energy and Business Publications
Named as a leading energy storage firm in Austin Business Journal,
Energy CIO Insights, and Energy Storage News
Solar power is contagious. These maps show how it spreads.
Brad Plumer for VOX : Rooftop solar is expanding rapidly in the United States — by some estimates, a new system goes up every four minutes. There are plenty of reasons for that, from falling prices to generous federal subsidies to innovative leasing schemes.
But there's another, little-discussed factor here: Residential solar power is contagious. Yep, contagious. Studies have found that if you install solar photovoltaic panels on your roof, that increases the odds that your neighbors will install their own panels.
SolarCity, the largest solar installer in the United States, just published some fascinating data on this "contagion" effect. The company has installed 230,000 rooftop systems nationwide (often by allowing customers to lease panels rather than buy them upfront). It says fully one-third of customers were referred by a friend or neighbor.
SolarCity has also made some neat animations showing the "contagion" effect in action. View here:
The 50 Most Innovative New Renewable Energy Companies
To make our list, your company had to be, first and foremost, innovative. Your company needed an innovative product, technology, or process to even have been considered for our rundown.
SolarCity Launches Utility and Grid Services
SolarCity's new services include installation, financing, and consulting services for utility-scale solar and energy storage resource development, as well as advanced controls for demand response, distributed energy resources, and aggregated grid services.
PVinsights: Solar panel prices slump as global price competition intensifies
Solar panel prices extend losses this week, as Chinese module makers leverage price competition intensively over the globe, especially in the US. Amid waning demand in China, some Chinese module maker is rush to increase the shipment volume in rest of the world, particularly in the US, in order to be the dominant module manufacturer. Since the demand in the US is widely expected to be promising in the coming five years, Chinese module makers has been aiming the US as one of the major target market to penetrate with their overseas capacities. Hence, solar panel price in the US has encountered great pressures, as Chinese module makers fuel strategic pricing intensively in the region. Meanwhile, in China, SEA and India, the regional prices are under pressured as Chinese module makers also intend to leverage price competition to capture more market shares.
How much noise is produced by wind turbines?
Phys.org: Wind energy is to have a major share in the future renewable energy mix. The Germany-wide TremAc project is aimed at improving the planning, development, and acceptance of wind power plants and at developing objective criteria for their emissions. For this purpose, experts will study the interaction of acoustic and seismic vibrations of wind power plants and plan to generate a model to compute both emissions. TremAc is funded with EUR 1.85 million by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
"We want to compute the complete chain of effects from the plant to the population," Theodoros Triantafyllidis, coordinator of the TremAc cooperation project and Head of the Institute of Soil Mechanics and Rock Mechanics of KIT, explains. Within the framework of the TremAc cooperation project, a single chain is to be developed for modeling all vibrating plant components and the surroundings, i.e. the rotating rotor blades, drive shaft, gondola suspension and tower structure, foundation, and the ground, various topographic terrains and airflows as well as adjacent residential buildings and workplaces.
UL to launch accelerated thermal evaluation service at CWIEME Berlin
Safety test provider Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is launching a shorter 50-day electrical insulation system test program for electric motors at the forthcoming CWIEME Berlin exhibition. This service responds to global demand from manufacturers for help getting products to market quicker without compromising on safety.
New winding technology boosts motor efficiency
As the world braces for ever more stringent regulations aimed at curbing carbon emissions, a new winding techlogy promises to both increase motor efficiency and its power factor while using a surprisingly cost-effective method.
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