$$$ First Solar, die amerikanische Q-Cells $$$

"Was wir getan haben, ist die Schwäche gelegen, es Materialien fokussiert ist, und ein völlig disruptive Technologie", sagte Sivaram.

Die firmeneigene Maschine, die so genannte Hyperion, entfällt die Notwendigkeit für 52 Teile der Ausrüstung in der Regel erforderlich, um Waffeln zu machen, sagte er. "Tötet die ganze Sache und ersetzen Sie es mit Hyperion", sagte Sivaram. "Das ist wirklich das, was wir tun wollen."
Wasserstoff-Ionen

Hyperions verwenden eine Technologie Twin Creeks ruft "Proton induzierte Peeling", um Wasserstoff-Ionen mit hoher Spannung zu injizieren zu Wafern. Die Protonen erzeugen "Mikrorisse", die dünne Schichten abblättern bei ungefähr 20 Mikrometern (0,02 Millimeter) dick ist, wenn die Wafer später in einem Ofen erhitzt werden, wobei Sivaram. Typische Wafer sind etwa zehnmal so dick, sagte er.

Hyperion könnte die Kosten eines typischen 1-Gigawatt-Zell-Produktionslinie zu halbieren, auch wenn sie "teuer", sagte er, ohne den genauen Verkaufspreis.

Jedes Hyperion kann über 6 Megawatt von Wafern produzieren, so etwa 16 Maschinen würde bei einer 100-Megawatt-Produktionslinie benötigt werden, sagte er.

Panels von Twin Creeks "Wafern hergestellt haben ähnliche Macht-Wirkungsgrade von konventionellen obwohl sie dünn genug zu sein wie Dünnschicht-Produkten von Unternehmen wie MiaSole Inc. und SoloPower Inc., die aus anderen Materialien als Silizium verwenden, flexibel gestaltet sind, nach Sivaram.

"Was du hast, ist das weltweit erste flexible Einkristall-Silizium", sagte er. Die Flexibilität der Wafer senkt die Kosten weiter, weil biegbar Verpackung für Zellen und Module, anstelle von Glas oder Aluminium verwendet werden können, sagte Twin Creeks heute in einer Erklärung.
Venture Capital

Twin Creeks, in San Jose, Kalifornien, von etwa $ 93 Millionen Venture Capital von Crosslink Capital Inc., Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures LLC, Artis Capital Management LP und in Taiwan ansässige Global Strategic Investment Fund gesichert, sagte Sivaram.

Das Unternehmen schloss ein Werk in Mississippi Mai 2011, dass "wird als Arbeitssprache Labor für alle unsere Kunden gedacht", sagte Sivaram.

Die Website verfügt über zwei Hyperion Maschinen und eine Produktionslinie der Lage, 25 Megawatt Solarzellen pro Jahr. Es gibt Raum, um auf 100 Megawatt pro Jahr zu erweitern, wenn ein Partner gewählt, dies zu tun, sagte Sivaram.

Seit der Gründung des Unternehmens im Jahr 2008 hat es auf die Bereitstellung von Investitionsgütern anstatt Panels neu ausgerichtet.

"Ich verkaufe Investitionsgüter", sagte Sivaram. "Ich habe in der Lage sein es zu jeder Zelle und Panel-Hersteller in der Welt verkaufen wollen, so bin ich nicht derjenige Auslegen der letzten Pfennig auf die Marge und der Kampf für Panel-und Zell-Preis", sagte er.

Um die Reporter zu dieser Geschichte an: Andrew Herndon in San Francisco bei aherndon2@bloomberg.net

Zur Kontaktaufnahme mit dem Herausgeber verantwortlich für diese Geschichte: Reed Landberg am landberg@bloomberg.net

The company sells its products to project developers, system integrators, and operators of renewable energy projects primarily in Europe with a distinct focus on Germany. Thus, the current macro scenario does not bode well for the solar industry, which thrives mainly on subsidies and grants. A volatile euro, apprehension over a reduction in European solar subsidies and falling crystalline silicon prices are a matter of nagging concern.

The company presently retains a short-term Zacks #3 Rank (Hold). We have a long-term Underperform recommendation on the stock.

Read the full analyst report on FSLR

Read the full analyst report on NRG

The U.S. share of the global market was only about 7 percent last year, he said, but that share should double by 2016 as U.S. demand continues to grow and European demand starts to decline.

The large, utility-scale projects, which produce power for the wholesale electricity market, totaled 758 MW of the 2011 total. That is about the size of one natural gas-fired power plant.

Another 3,000 MW of utility-scale plants are currently under construction in the United States, and 6,000 MW is at an earlier stage of development, the report said.

Among those projects under construction are two 550-MW projects being built by First Solar and a 250-MW plant being built by SunPower Corp SPRW.O, which are among the largest in the world.

Installations on homes rose 11 percent in 2011 to 297 MW, while panels installed at non-residential sites rose 28 percent to 800 MW.

Despite declining prices for solar panels in recent years, the sector still relies on government subsidies to make the power projects competitive with coal and natural gas.

The average installed cost for solar declined by 20 percent last year to $4.08 per watt, largely because of reductions in costs for the largest plants, which saw costs drop to $3.20 per watt in the fourth quarter.

That overall decline did not fully reflect last year's 50 percent drop in wholesale panel prices, since most of the 2011 project costs were before that steep decline.

The 2011 panel price drop is likely to begin showing up in projects that will come on line later this year.

(Reporting By Matt Daily; Editing by Bernard Orr)

The road to cost reductions, as per Hanwha, rests in the optimization of silver paste, increased module output and conversion of cells in a similar fashion to other makers, to over 17% in multi and over 18% in monocrystalline cells. At the conference, the management revealed even more detail on cost, with processing wafers at $0.11 per watt, cells at $0.18, and module, at what sounded pricey below $.30 per watt. While the last figure hints at high costs for module assembly, wafer processing seems incredibly well optimized, particularly for an operator with limited 800MW worth capacity being able to closely challenge the processing cost of the most efficient wafer maker, GCL, and beating outright that of Renesola (SOL). In defense of Renesola, a blend of quasi-mono and mono processing, as essentially Renesola has no traditional multicrystalline product left, will be naturally more expensive.

Development of solar plants has become a silver bullet solution to combat negative gross margins, and as have others before, Hanwha envisioned moving itself into a downstream. To put words into action, on March 16th, S.A.G. Solarstrom and Hanwha SolarOne formed a joint venture to put Hanwha's modules on roofs in Italy in the amount of 20MW, with a further 20MW for future developments. Hanwha took an 85% share of the new entity. The move to solar distribution and plant development may put soon yesterday's suppliers against the likes of IBC, Solarhybrid and Juwi, as the direct competition. While majorities of large businesses, like Yingli or Suntech, are eyeing China for this type of growth, in a place where business is mostly local, Canadian is openly talking about USA, Japan and Europe, with Sunergy chatting on India, USA and Australia. Certainly at some point those companies will be crossing paths with some of the segment's players. Development of solar plants may become a second battlefield for China's objective to dominate the industry, and without an alternative source of quality supply, current developers may be experiencing increased pressure, which will lend itself to closer relations and joint ventures like the one between Hanwha and Solarstrom at one end, or bankruptcies further extending into this sector on the other.

In summary, Hanwha delivered little excitement with another quarter of quoting the need for improvement, but leaving the audience wanting more concrete delivery. There was very little confirmation on synergies with Hanwha Chem, the parent company. Outside of 100MW of consideration for the company's modules, and undetermined financial support, Hanwha parent seems to be in limbo mode, which does not put a lot of confidence in SolarOne for 2012, in addition to a weak forecast with 1GW of sales, or 18% growth. The fairly low debt level is probably one of the few attractive aspects left in the company, which makes very little difference to industry, which measures its progress and leadership in a few pennies per watt and sorts winners from losers by using this spread.

In China, the largest world producer of polysilicon and wafers at 65,000MT and 8GW respectively, earned $0.03 per share on $3.3B in revenues, based upon the account of financial conditions. GCL results confirmed objectives given earlier by Canadian (CSIQ) about the ability to reach certain operational milestones for GCL wafer processing and polysilicon costs. The end of 2012 objective of $0.10 per watt processing with $.09 poly costs will produce 24% GM on a wafer sold at $0.25, a relatively comfortable level for an undisputed global leader. GCL processed wafers at $0.13 per watt and produced poly at $18.6 per kg in Q4. GCL is also in expansion mode into solar plant development and downstream activities in the US and Japan, as we reported on the Solar PV Investor site.

Renesola, the third largest wafer manufacturer in the world, and China Sunergy (CSUN), the smallest of the Chinese manufacturers listed in USA, announced their results on March 16th. Renesola shipped a combined 339MW of products, which included 94.5MW of modules in Q4. The modules sold at $0.97 per watt, while wafers sold at $0.36 per watt. For the yearly total, shipments were 1,294MW including 280.7 MW of modules. Net revenue for the year was at $985M, 18.3% below 2010 results. The dramatic decrease behind the wafer ASP was the main reason for the drop in revenues, despite the new quasi-mono wafer Virtus, which is gaining a lot of traction with clients. Renesola has managed to stay in the black on the year, which makes this a unique condition for a company that had the least amount of opportunity for a gross margin based on wafer pricing.

The big contributing feature was their own polysilicon production, which will be expanding in 2012 as a helpful portion of value chain enabling lower cost of internal modules. However, as a standalone production, costs are borderline with the spot ASP, putting at risk gross margins in the wafer segment. Renesola plans to develop its poly manufacturing in Phase II to reach 10,000MT of poly per year by the end of 2012, up from the current 4,000MT. The cost of poly production for Renesola in Q4 was at $30 per kg, and with the new plant running is expected to reach $24 per kg by year's end. Wafer processing improved by three cents to $0.20 per watt, but appears to be somewhat lagging when benchmarked against GCL, whose production includes processing of quasi mono wafers, even so when granted a degree of error due to variable quasi mono penetration at each company. By Q4 2012 the company expects this cost to be reduced to $0.15 per watt, and after adding poly, to ultimately drop down to a total of $0.28 for the watt. Despite those efforts I expect Renesola's wafer production cost to be 40% above the one at GCL for that period. Renesola appears to identify the above condition and plans to increase sales of modules built on its own value chain by leveraging the full spectrum of internal production. Today's all-cost-in at $0.73 (March 2012), makes the company the most efficient module manufacturer on the market, without seeing potentially better results from LDK (LDK). In line with this thought module capacity is expected to increase to 1GW, contingent upon demand and expected cost dynamic, while CEO Li is firm on his estimate of 600MW of module sales in 2012, a 137% jump. The sales of wafer will grow as well, into the 20 to 40% range, or 1.2 to 1.4GW. Virtus appears to draw a 20% premium on the market to quasi mono strong wafer made by GCL, and priced by GCL, as part of the LT contract Canadian described in February. Renesola is probably the last resort for a cheap wafer, aside from LDK, for those who never got on the GCL wagon. Some Taiwanese companies like Green Energy Technology may stay in line, but the rest of the cheap wafers will be coming from bankruptcies rather than from continuous production. Renesola's wafer capacity will be at 2GW, including 1.6GW of Virtus' wafer lines.

While China Sunergy sold 420MW of products in 2011, including 411.5MW of modules, the company lost $94M for the year and went through ADS consolidation in order to avoid delisting as one of the unique conditions affecting the company's stock. As others, Sunergy sees downstream business as a door leading to a profitable dynamic. The work estimate here is for 100MW financed by the Chinese banks in 2012. Sunergy also has high conversion modules, which are apparently capable of conversions of 17.7%. Those sales are still limited, thus overall ASP for Sunergy was at an average of $0.94 per watt, not seeing much of the premium. Synergy plans Q1 sales at $0.84 per watt, with processing costs of $.20 per watt cell and $0.25 per watt module. To date, Renesola with $0.97, and Jinko with $0.96, are the other two companies that sold below $1 in Q4, and are expected to continue the downward trend, reaching below $0.90 in the same fashion as Sunergy reported. Another bomb dropped, which is becoming a tradition of Renesola CEO Mr. Xianshou Li, was the prediction of Q4 module pricing as low as $0.70 to $0.75, which spells little to no gross margin for the majority of the industry, unless as Canadian speculated, they can process wafers bought at $0.25 into modules at $0.35 processing per watt. In order to reach 10% gross margin in Q1, Sunergy needs to purchase wafers at $0.30 per watt, a steep drop from blended wafer costs of $.38 in Q4. Luckily, Sunergy is included in GCL's customer list, and getting to this level is feasible through this relationship, but may be delayed as the company is cycling inventory.

Insofar as predictions for Q1 and the year, solar companies have no manufacturing ability to reach a profit for the H1 as an industry, with perhaps few breakaways in the second part of the year. Almost certainly all companies mentioned will have an impossible task to be profitable for the full year, unless the distribution and development efforts will be dramatically increased to affect this year's income statements.

Finally, another postponement had been made in the case of importation duties. It is ironic that something that has been observed by SolarWorld with such clarity and conviction cannot be determined, due to its complexity, by a governmental body. Perhaps the complexity is in the attempt to prove something which does not exist in the presented framework, but it is a result of any industrialized country supporting its efforts internally and globally, in the case of China leading the spent in renewables for years, and finally reaching its leadership by cost management today. Further, it appears that in anticipation of the soon-to-be-announced verdict, two currently anonymous companies went public with their part in the anti-dumping petition against the Chinese: MX Solar USA, a manufacturer of solar panels in Somerset, N.J., with 65MW of production and 120 workers at peak; and Helios Solar Works from Milwaukee, with its 50MW production and 34-person workforce. CASM, or Collation for American Solar Manufacturing, claims a membership of 150 companies and 15,000 workers, a smaller headcount against what many consider a 100,000 job industry and growing, with the fastest pace among other American industrial segments. For every installation job, which is a 100% labour-intensive process, manufacturing by today's standards constitute 0% (automation) to 15% labor; this means for one job in manufacturing ten are created in installing. SunPower (SPWR) is the bestselling brand in California, and has no problem competing with the Chinese on grounds of conversion. Kyocera and Sharp are leading sellers, with a lot higher pricing as we have proven on many occasions; again quality and conversion makes the sale here. No large American corporations joined CASM, including MEMC (WFR), SunEdison and First Solar (FSLR), with the latter looking actively for work in … China. In the latest announcement the case conclusion will be delivered in May, but the outcome is already being neutralized by some of the Chinese. Sunergy is prepared to open a manufacturing site in the US, and Jinko recently made arrangements with an OEM module assembler in Canada, something which Hanwha has been doing for more than a year. LDK has been having OEM arrangements made; Canadian sells "Made in Ontario" modules, which under NAFTA should be free of any duties. Suntech simply makes modules in Arizona. Therefore if the duties are in fact enforced, the impact may be minimal for the majority of those who matter. Yingli and Trina did not provide details on how they will deal with duties at the manufacturing level. Trina, who counts on 20% plus business in the US, took an 8% provision added to cogs in Q4, the only company at this point taking financial adjustment in case of the incoming verdict.

Disclosure: I am long YGE, TSL.

First Solar, Inc. : The Securities Arbitration Law Firm of Klayman & Toskes Launches Investigation On Behalf of First Solar Shareholders With Large Concentrated Positions
03/19/2012 | 10:55am

The Securities Arbitration Law Firm of Klayman & Toskes, P.A. ("K&T"), www.nasd-law.com, announced today that it is investigating claims on behalf of First Solar (NasdaqGS: FSLR) shareholders who sustained investment losses due to an over-concentration of shares in First Solar stock. Trading at over $300 per share in July 2008, First Solar has declined substantially and is now trading around $30 per share, representing a decline of about 90%.

Since 2000, K&T has pioneered the representation of High Net Worth ("HNW") and Ultra-HNW clients who sustained investment losses as a result of holding concentrated positions in a single security or sector, in a full-service brokerage account. The clients we represented and continue to represent include founders of public companies and key employees from virtually every industry who received large grants of stock options or Rule 144 restricted stock. The claims, filed in the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA") Arbitration Department, focused on the mismanagement of the clients' portfolios given the fact that there were risk management strategies that would have protected the value of the concentrated portfolio. Such risk management strategies include stop loss and limit orders, protective puts and collars. Stop loss orders, limit orders and protective puts provide an account with downside protection and an exit strategy should the stock decline in value. A hedge strategy, known as a "zero cost" collar, would have created a range of value that the portfolio would have maintained irrespective of the fluctuation and direction of the underlining stock price. The failure to use risk management strategies as well as the failure to "hedge" the value of a concentrated portfolio directly exposes an investor's concentrated position to the fluctuations in the volatile securities markets.

The attorneys at K&T are dedicated to pursuing claims on behalf of investors who have suffered substantial investment losses. K&T, an experienced, qualified and nationally recognized securities litigation law firm, practices exclusively in the field of securities arbitration and litigation. If you wish to discuss this announcement or sustained losses of $500,000 or more as a result of holding a concentrated position in First Solar, please contact Steven D. Toskes of Klayman & Toskes, at 888-997-9956, or visit us on the web at www.nasd-law.com

An estimated four percent to eight percent of the cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film modules manufactured by First Solar between June 2008 and June 2009 had a “process control” issue which resulted in a potential “premature power loss once in the field,” according to First Solar Chair and Interim CEO Mike Ahearn.

The process control issue, which the company has been dealing with in financials since 2010, involved global production and all three of First Solar’s CdTe manufacturing facilities at the time (in Ohio, Germany, and Malaysia). The issue was identified in June 2009 and the process factor was “addressed.” Subsequently, First Solar has been fulfilling its warranty obligations with its customers. “The vast majority were in Europe,” said First Solar’s Vice President of Communications Ted Meyer. Most were in Germany, where the bulk of First Solar’s modules were being sold at the time.

First Solar’s remediation program includes module removal, testing, replacement and logistical services and additional compensation payments to customers under certain circumstances. First Solar has now “processed over 95 percent of the total claims submitted” and, to date, “the total cost of remediating the manufacturing excursion is $215.7 million,” said Ahearn. That includes, he added, “$145.6 million above and beyond our standard warranty.”

For First Solar, the issue is largely resolved, and “while the cost of the program has been much higher than we would’ve liked,” Ahearn said, “we believe we have done the right thing in demonstrating our commitment to our customers beyond our product warranty.”

Panel Power Degradation

In a separate issue, Credit Suisse's Kumar cited a National Renewable Energy Labs (NREL) report finding “high temperature degradation of CdTe panels” an issue.

According to First Solar, panel underperformance “was unrelated to climate” and First Solar has no concern about the performance of the panels it has subsequently installed and is installing in its solar power plants. The company, he said, has tests showing CdTe thin film to get better “energy yields” and “performance ratios” than silicon modules.

But, Meyer pointed out, because the company is now building in the U.S. desert Southwest, the Middle East and other places much hotter than Europe, its Q4 financials included a one percent higher set-aside in the event of warranty-related expenses. The set-aside, a completely separate matter from the manufacturing excursion, is listed as a “warranty rate change” of $37.8 million. That $37.8 million, Meyer said, “covers all of the five-plus gigawatts we have in the field going forward.”

“Our experience has shown that our warranty rates for hot climates are slightly higher than the return rates for temperate climates,” explained First Solar Chief Financial and Accounting Officer Mark Widmar. The one percent extra set-aside will “account for potential returns going forward.”

More on Degradation

In a rare and likely reluctant release of actual data, First Solar presented some NREL degradation test results of CdTe panels. NREL found a 0.53 percent per year long-term and linear degradation rate over 16.5 years -- a degradation rate comparable to other established photovoltaic technology. This data was presented by Raffi Garabedian, First Solar Vice President of Advanced Technology, at a recent IEEE PV Silicon Valley event at PARC.

Enbridge Purchases First Solar’s 50-megawatt Silver State North Power Plant

Enbridge bought the 50-megawatt Silver State Power Plant in Nevada in what a represenative of First Solar called "continued momentum in realizing our project pipeline, getting projects built, [and] selling them to top tier players,"
Enbridge is Canada’s largest oil-pipeline operator. The project, to be operational in May of this year, is built on federal land. Pricing was not disclosed.

Silver State North Solar Project at a glance:

Location: Clark County, Nevada, near the community of Primm
Net Peak Capacity: 50 megawatts (AC)
Project Area: About 600 acres (on Bureau of Land Management lands)
Approximate number of solar modules: Over 800,000
Annual yield: 122,000 megawatt-hours (corresponding to the annual consumption of about 9,000 homes)
Energy Purchaser: NV Energy (25-year PPA)

Making Solar Power Plants Better Grid Citizens

Robert Jenkins, First Solar's Director of Utility Interconnection, works on plant performance requirements and utility requirements. Greentech Media spoke with him on Thursday. In an effort to be a good grid citizen, First Solar has begun to add Low Voltage Ride Through (LVRT) and Dynamic Voltage Support to the Antelope Valley Solar Ranchh and the Agua Caliente solar power plants.

"LVRT is is the ability of a PV plant to stay connected to the grid during voltage and frequency excursions and return to the pre-disturbance power levels once the distrurbance has been cleared," explained Jenkins. As soon as the fault is cleared the plant goes back to producing power.

"Dynamic Voltage Support is the ability of the plant to monitor the grid voltage and match the reacitve output to a prescribed band, added Jenkins. If voltage starts starts to sag or rise, reactive power is used to inject or withdraw the variations.

These functions are performed at or near the inverter, a piece of hardware First Solar does not build, but specifies and purchases in high-volumes.

Daryl Issa Committee Attacks DOE loans to AVSR and Agua Caliente

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Darrell Issa, is investigating the DOE loans to the innovative and doomed Solyndra solar panel factory. But the committee is also going after the DOE loans to California's Antelope Valley Solar Ranch and Arizona's Agua Caliente solar power plant because the technology was not innovative enough. Both of those plants were developed by First Solar which is suggesting that the advanced technology in the plants involves new power electronics technologies such as Low Voltage Ride Through and Dynamic Voltage Support (see above).