Gregoire's CleanTech Blog

La plus grande centrale solaire actuelle

Ci-jointes des photos de la plus grande centrale solaire actuelle. Le Gut Erlasse Solar Park est situé en Bavière à Arnstein. C'est une centrale de 12MW construite à partir de paneaux mobiles de Solon (Germany) sur des cellules photovoltaïques fournies par SunPower (US). Cette centrale est capable de fournir 14.000 MWh / an soit la consommation de 9.000 foyers

Lien: Photos: World's largest solar power plant | CNET News.com.

La première usine espagnole de polysilicium

Les groupes Endesa et Isofotón investiront 250 millions d'euros dans la construction d'une usine destinée à la production de polysilicium, la matière première des panneaux solaires. Le Conseil d'Innovation, des Sciences et de l'Entreprise d'Andalousie collabore également à ce projet pionnier en Espagne et qui est le septième de ce genre dans le monde.

L'usine qui occupera une superficie de 100 000 mètres carrés dans la municipalité des Los Barrios, dans la région de Cadix, aura une capacité annuelle de production de 2 500 tonnes de polysilicum. Elle sera opérationnelle dans 30 mois et générera la création de 340 emplois.

Actuellement la demande annuelle en polysilicium se chiffre à 13 000 tonnes et on prévoit qu'elle atteindra 150 000 tonnes d'ici 2015. La production mondiale se concentre au Japon (48%), en Europe (27%) et aux Etats Unis (11%). La nouvelle fabrique d'Andalousie contribuera à rééquilibrer la balance et jouera un rôle important sur le marché de l'approvisionnement en matière première. Il faut savoir qu'à l'heure actuelle 90% des cellules photovoltaïques sont produites à base de silicium.

Par ailleurs, l'implantation de ce nouveau centre en Andalousie contribuera au développement technologique de la région. L'Andalousie possède déjà un secteur industriel photovoltaïque leader en Europe.

Ces installations apporteront enfin une valeur ajoutée au groupe Isofoton (neuvième compagnie dans le monde pour la production de systèmes solaires) grâce au contrôle de la production de la matière première.

Lien: Enerzine.com - La première usine espagnole de polysilicium.

Applied Materials lance une stratégie visant à réduire le coût par watt de l'énergie solaire

Ca y est ! Les grands acteurs de l'électronique et des écrans commencent à se rendre compte que le marché du photovoltaïque est à un point d'inflexion. Du coup, les équipementiers comme Applied Materials s'y mettent aussi. Ce n'est que le début...

Lien: Applied Materials lance une stratégie visant à réduire le coût par watt de l'énergie solaire.

Allemagne : Inauguration del a plus grande centrale photovoltaïque du monde 12 MW

SunPower Corporation et Solon ont inauguré le plus grand parc solaire photovoltaïque su monde. Cette centrale d'une puissance de 12 MW est implantée dans la campagne d'Arnstein en Bavière, elle permettra d'alimenter chaque année plusieurs milliers de clients.
Solon a implémenté les panneaux solaires à haut rendement de SunPower Corporation ( panneaux atteignant 20% de rendement) qui sont associés à un système de tracking solaire afin d'optimiser en permanence la production électrique de la centrale.

Lien: ENR-ACTU : Les News des Energies Nouvelles...: Allemagne : Inauguration del a plus grande centrale photovoltaïque du monde 12 MW.

Solar World: Silicon deal amid scarcity

The major silicon supply contract signed Wednesday between Germany's ErSol Solar Energy AG and Wacker Chemie AG highlights one of the biggest problems in the solar industry: the extreme scarcity of the product's main ingredient.

"For 2006 ... there are roughly 13,000 to 15,000 tons of high-grade silicon available," Erik Thorsen, the president and chief executive officer of the Norwegian silicon supplier Renewable Energy Corporation, told United Press International.

"Probably the demand (from solar companies) is twice the current supply," he said.

This imbalance makes prices high, and is part of the reason photovoltaic solar energy, which converts sunlight into electricity by chemical reaction, must be heavily subsidized to compete with the price of electricity from fossil fuels.

It's also affecting the solar business.

"The shortage is part of what caused (photovoltaic) stocks to pull back since May," J. Peter Lynch, a financial consultant and an expert on the renewable energy industry, said in an e-mail.

"Wall Street analysts had be looking for 40 percent-plus growth and all of a sudden (sometimes it takes some time to sink in) they are looking at 15 percent to 20 percent growth because of the shortage, and stock got hit as a result," Lynch said.

It also makes securing good supply contracts essential; ErSol's contract with Wacker takes effect in 2009 and will give ErSol an additional production output of approximately 100 megawatts peak over six years, according to an ErSol company statement.

The contract "is quite a significant success," ErSol Chief Executive Officer Claus Beneking told UPI. "Silicon is not easy to get, but already having (supply contracts for the material) makes it easier than it is for newcomers."

Thanks to this deal, ErSol will boast 150 megawatts to 200 megawatts per year in production capacity starting in 2009, Beneking said.

"In total, we will have more than doubled our silicon supply as compared to one year ago," he said.

In the short term, there is no way to increase the silicon supply to meet demand, REC's Thorsen said.

Lynch, the financial consultant, said he agreed.

"I think the shortage is definitely a short term 2008-2009 problem," he said in an e-mail.

However, a few years down the road, the market will be able to realize a major capacity expansion. "It takes two to three years to build a plant like that," Thorsen said, explaining the necessary delay.

Silicon is the second-most abundant element in the Earth's crust, making up 25.7 percent by weight. However, refining it enough for use in semiconductors and solar cells takes a "big chemical plant," Thorsen said.

"To produce this kind of silicon, you need to refine it using a chemical process, then bring it back to solid form using reactor devices," he said.

Many suppliers are already working toward expanding their capacity, and therefore, "toward 2008 and forward, more capacity will be available."

"If you're looking at it from the 2008 to 2010 perspective, capacity will at least triple," Thorsen said.

Will demand for solar still be greater than silicon supply after this dramatic increase?

"We think so," ErSol's Beneking said. Speaking in terms of his company's own new silicon reserve, he said, "We have two new long-term contracts that will take a significant amount of the new quantity (of silicon acquired in the deal)."

"We wouldn't have a problem to sell everything in advance, but we want to be flexible and keep some back," he said.

Other factors might drive photovoltaic demand up as well: "(Silicon supply) could be a long term problem because things like global warming and peak oil (prices) may force more PV use, and that would put silicon into a catch up mode even over the long term," Lynch said.

Source : Semiconductor International - Solar World: Silicon deal amid scarcity.

Solar : 3 reasons to believe

As solar companies prepare to converge on Dresden for the 21st European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition next week, the volatility of the market is sure to be on many minds.

After all, solar stocks declined 11.8 percent from March to July, according to the London-based research firm New Energy Finance. Not likely to help are oil prices falling below $70 a barrel Tuesday, when concerns that Tropical Storm Ernesto could damage production in the Gulf of Mexico were alleviated.

 

Lower prices haven’t kept people from uttering the “b” word when referring to solar power; you know, “bubble.” “Valuations are out of whack and in a bubble—in some cases in solar, and in some cases in biofuels,” said John Quealy, a principal at Canaccord Adams, during a panel discussion at the Red Herring East conference in Boston in June (see Cleantech ‘Bubble’ Risks Seen).

New Energy Finance partly blamed “concerns that for some ompanies, particularly in the solar sector, their results did not back up valuations of their shares” for the decline in clean-energy stock prices (see Clean Energy Stocks Decline).

Sure, industry watchers are quick to point to positives. “Investors are being more cautious about which IPOs they back, and I don’t see anything negative in that,” said New Energy Finance CEO Michael Liebreich. He expects clean-energy stocks to begin growing again by the end of the year.

But investors watching their solar stocks lose value might want a little more reassurance. Looking over the news in the last few weeks could help. Here are a few examples of reasons to continue believing in solar:

1) More Government Support: One of the biggest reasons solar skeptics are concerned about the industry is its reliance on government subsidies. The largest of these come from Germany, which pays up to twice the market price for solar power.

In March, even though average government payouts have dropped 5 percent, the market has grown by 40 percent, according to Mr. Liebreich, so the total amount of public spending is growing fast—and is unsustainable (see Solar Energy’s Bright Future). Spain, Italy, and South Korea also have significant incentives.

But news that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Million Solar Roofs bill into law in August, after a similar initiative failed last year, could help assuage concerns that Germany alone keeps the bottom from falling out of the market (see California Solar Bill Fails and Schwarzenegger Signs Solar Law).

The law adds tax credits, increases the amount of excess electricity solar owners can sell back to the grid, and mandates that new home builders offer solar power as an option to buyers starting in 2011. The legislation aims to generate 3,000 megawatts of solar power, equal to the output of five conventional power plants.

The program is expected to make California the third-largest solar market in the world. SunPower CEO Thomas Werner says it’s about the fifth-largest market now. The program will be funded by $2.9 billion in solar incentives that the California Public Utilities Commission approved in January (see California Solar Gets $2.9B). “Now it’s California’s turn to drive the market,” wrote Mr. Liebreich in a report in August.

2) Easing Supply Bottlenecks: Demand has exceeded supply for several years in the solar industry, constraining growth. A big part of the supply bottleneck involves a worldwide shortage of polysilicon, the grade of silicon used to make solar electricity.

But recent news indicates capacity is growing fast as many polysilicon manufacturers add capacity. Among those:

In August, Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) in Norway said it has begun construction of a new polysilicon plant in Washington, which will add about 6,500 metric tons to REC’s current 13,000-metric-ton capacity.

That’s a big vote of confidence from a company that supplies the polysilicon for 20 to 25 percent of the world’s solar cells.

At the end of June, Germany’s Wacker Chemie, another big player, said it would spend $376.7 million to build a new 4,500-metric-ton plant that would bring its total capacity to 14,500 metric tons by the end of 2009.

3) Growing Demand: Of course, some worry that if capacity increases too fast, it could blow right by demand and put the solar industry in a slump. Growing sales could be an antidote to that anxiety.

Mike Rogol, an analyst with CLSA-Asia Pacific Markets, has raised expectations after higher-than-anticipated sales this year. Sales for 2006, estimated only three months ago at “more than $16 billion,” are now estimated to total $19 billion. And Mr. Rogol’s forecast for has gone from “more than $40 billion” in 2010 to $72 billion.

Among the increased sales are two Napa wineries, Hagafen Cellars and Kent Rasmussen Winery, which announced that they have installed 37-kilowatt and 34-kilowatt SunPower solar-electric systems in August, respectively.

The same month, Anderson Valley Brewing Company in California said it installed a 122-kilowatt commercial solar system from Kyocera Solar.

And in June, plans to build a 901-kilowatt solar array at Fetzer Vineyards in California came to light. It will be the largest solar-powered vineyard thus far in the United States, at a price of $6 million to $7 million (see California Winery Goes Solar).

Don’t trust the judgment of alcoholic beverage makers?

In July, Evergreen Solar announced its biggest sale so far when it signed a $200-million, five-year agreement to sell solar cells to SunEdison, a company that finances solar projects (see Q&A: Evergreen’s Mark Farber).

And in April, GE Energy Financial Services, PowerLight, and Catavento said they will build the world’s largest solar plant, an 11-megawatt plant in Portugal(see GE Funds Largest Solar Plant).

Technologies driving prices down could spur sales even more (see Thin Film Solar to Go Large, Cheaper Solar Comes Closer, Applied Materials’ Sunny Plan, Solar Firms’ Profits Shine, Solar’s Going Thin, Fund to Offer Solar ‘Leases’, Solar May Get Cheaper, and Solar Power, the Chinese Way).

Startups have received VC and private equity funding, and IPOs are going strong (see SolFocus Soaks Up $25M, Nanosolar Gets $100M for PV, SunEdison Gets Private Equity, Nano Solar Firm Gets Funding, and Konarka Raises $20M in Funds).

Germany-based Wacker and Norway-based REC raised $1.5 billion and $1.2 billion in IPOs this year. And the top three tech IPOs last year were solar companies—China-based Suntech Power, Germany-based Conergy and Q-Cells (see Big Deals: IPOs).

A Deep Breath

Of course, all this good news doesn’t mean investors should drop their vigilance. Ultimately, not all solar companies will be successful.

“Like any other startup company or technology, there’s going to be some real stuff out there and there’s going to be some hype,” said Larry Dubois, a vice president at SRI, a nonprofit research and development organization. “There’s certainly a frenzy of activity in clean technology, but we’re hoping that’s going to shake out and the good technologies are going to come out front.”

Source : Red Herring

ATS finally files preliminary prospectus for solar IPO

Many of the specifics (share price and quantity issued) aren't yet known, but ATS Automation has finally filed its preliminary prospective with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company plans to raise $250 million (U.S.) by having an IPO of its Photowatt Technologies division, which would include France-based Photowatt (maker of conventional solar PV panels) and Cambridge, Ontario-based startup Spheral Solar (its next-gen technology based on silicon beads). ATS issued a press release today to acknowledge the filing.

So far, the market seems to like it. By noon the stock was up by more than 12 per cent.

Projet d'usine de silicium près d'un site d'Arkema: 250 emplois à la clé

Nous l'avions déjà évoqué dans le dernier numéro de Plein Soleil, l'information a été confirmée mardi 29 août dans l'après-midi par les services de presse du conseil général des Alpes de Haute Provence. Un projet d'usine de production de silicium devrait voir le jour à Saint-Auban (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), dans le cadre d'un plan de revitalisation d'un site où Arkema a récemment supprimé 350 emplois, a annoncé mardi le conseil général.

Le projet est porté par un consortium qui réunit Econcern (holding de la compagnie Ecofys, Evelop, Ecostream et Ecoaventures), Photon Power Technologies (PPT fondée par quatre privés dont Philippe Veyan, le PDG, et Roland Barthez) ainsi que la société Norsun (start-up norvégienne créée en 2005 et spécialisée dans la production de support multicouches de cristal de silicium monomère). Dans un premier temps, l'usine de Saint-Auban devrait produire de 2000 à 3000 tonnes de silicium par an L'exploitation de cette usine pourrait créer 250 emplois (400 à plus long terme). Il est à noter que ce projet est lancé alors que le monde du solaire photovoltaïque connaît une grave pénurie de silicium alors même que la demande mondiale explose sous l'effet de la flambée des énergies fossiles.

Pour l'heure donc, Saint-Auban s'affiche comme le site préféré des investisseurs car doté d'un profil idéal de par notamment la proximité d'un site chlorié d'Akerma qui pourrait fournir du chlorure d'hydrogène purifié (HCI) et de l'hydrogène utilisés pour la production de silicium. « Nous espérons fermement avoir l'unité sur Saint-Auban, reconnaît Philippe Veyan. Cela donnera une impulsion pour de futurs développement d'une « silicone vallée » à la française ». « Nous sommes confiants dans la possibilité de commencer la production de silicium solaire à partir de 2008 » conclut Alf Bjoserth, PDG de Norsun.

Source : Plein Soleil

Xantrex to Supply Solar Inverters to Germany

Xantrex Technology Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, has received an order to supply 500-kilowatt solar grid tie inverters for three projects in Germany. The inverters can convert 500 kilowatts of DC electricity from solar panels into high quality AC electricity. The deal is valued at approximately US $1 million.

Source : Renewableenergy.com

Sharp sees solar power costs halving by 2010

Japan's Sharp Corp., the world's biggest maker of solar cells, expects the cost of generating solar power to halve by 2010 and to be comparable with that of nuclear power by 2030, Sharp's president said.

"By the year 2010 we'll be able to halve generation costs," Katsuhiko Machida told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. "By 2020 we expect a further reduction -- half of 2010 -- and by 2030 we expect half the 2020 level.

"By 2030 the cost will be comparable to electricity produced by a nuclear power plant," said Machida, speaking on the fringes of the IFA trade fair in Berlin, the world's biggest consumer electronics fair.

Asked how the costs were likely to compare with those for producing electricity from fossil fuels such as coal, Machida replied: "Fossil fuel resources will be totally out by then."

Solar electricity currently costs about $0.50 per kilowatt hour to produce, more than eight times as much as that produced from fossil fuel.

The market is growing at a rate of more than 30 percent per year but solar power still produces just a small fraction of one percent of the world's energy.

The solar industry in general expects the cost of producing solar power to fall by about 5 percent per year, on average.

Machida said he expected that a shortage of solar-grade silicon, the raw material from which solar panels that harness the sun's energy are made, would ease by 2008 as silicon makers step up production to catch up with soaring demand.

"In the first half of 2007, supply capacity will be increased, so once we go into 2008, supply will be catching up," he said.

Sharp has also been moving toward producing more so-called thin-film solar panels, which use less silicon but are less efficient than traditional solar panels.

Machida said the cost to produce solar energy from thin film was still around one-and-a-half times as high as making it from the normal, multicrystalline type.

"The mainstream will still be multicrystalline," Machida said, but he added that demand for thin-film would also continue to increase, for example, for specialist varieties such as see-through panels for window glass.

Machida said the sun could send enough energy to Earth in as little as an hour to provide for all the world's energy needs for one year.

"We're wasting a lot of energy," he said.

Source : Reuters.com