The Sandbox

In just some of the solar activity for the week, I was impressed to see this story in The Hindu Business Line that the government in India wants to establish 60 cities as “Solar Cities,” which calls for a minimum 10% reduction in projected total demand of conventional energy at the end of 5 years in each of the cities through energy-efficiency measures and generation from renewable-energy installations. The article says most Indian cities and towns are experiencing peak electricity shortages of more than 15%, so the plan would kill two proverbial birds with one stone: offset the power outages and install clean energy. Very cool.

Wednesday, who could miss Applied Materials’ big move in establishing a separate SunFab organization to concentrate on bringing its solar customers online. I have to wonder too if this move doesn’t beg the question as to whether the company isn’t looking at spinning off its solar division. I have no sources to back this up, but given the strength of the activity in this part of the company’s business, it could make good business sense. On the other hand, the solar business is providing a distraction (and a positive revenue stream) away from the lagging silicon side of the business, until the semiconductor industry comes out of its down cycle.

Also this week, solar power panel manufacturer Evergreen Solar Inc said it has signed two new long-term sales contracts, the first with German-based Ralos Vertriebs GmbH for approximately $750 million for panel deliveries beginning this year and extending through 2013. Combined with another agreement signed last week with a US-based installer, Evergreen has new contractual backlog of approximately $1 billion, the company noted.

Late this afternoon, I noticed that the city of San Jose announced that product safety testing and certification company Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is going to open a photovoltaic (PV) testing and certification facility in north San Jose. If I’m not mistaken, this location is right next door to TSMC North America, not that they have anything to do with each other, but it’s nice to know my way around Silicon Valley. According to UL, its “Photovoltaic Technology Center of Excellence,” is a 20,000 square-foot facility which is intended to increase testing capacity for the renewable energy industry and get UL-listed PV products to market faster. The site is slated to open in July, will initially employ 25 technicians and staff over the next 5 years, and offer pre-certification services, including R&D and training. It makes sense that UL decided to set up its testing facility in San Jose, since one can hardly drive a mile (ok, maybe a little more) without seeing the building of a solar startup.

The best part of the news was that apparently, there is a new name for Silicon Valley. As part of establishing this facility, UL said it is working with SolarTech, an initiative of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG), to help reach as many solar product manufacturers as possible. Carl Guardino, president and CEO of SVLG said in a statement, “Silicon Valley is rapidly emerging as America’s ‘Solar Valley.’” Solar Valley? Hmmmm.

If you want to read about San Jose’s “Green Vision,” click here.

In addition, extending its thin film solar equipment product line, Veeco Instruments Inc acquired Mill Lane Engineering, a privately held manufacturer of web coating systems for flexible solar panels, for $11 million, paid at closing, plus potential additional payments based upon the satisfaction of specific future conditions, including certain order, sales and profit levels. Mill Lane said it has an existing multi-unit order for web coating systems from a leading manufacturer of thin film copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells.

And to bring solar module manufacturing to Russia, turnkey solar factory and photovoltaic manufacturing equipment maker Spire Corp said it has received a contract from Bogoroditsk Plant of Techno-Chemical Products (BTCP) to provide a photovoltaic module assembly line for the company's operations in Russia. Specifically, Spire said it will provide BTCP with a semi-automated crystalline silicon module manufacturing line capable of producing up to 12 megawatts of solar modules per year.

Littleton, Colo.-based Ascent Solar Technologies Inc closed its initial public offering of 4,370,000 shares of common stock, including 570,000 shares issued after the underwriters exercised their over-allotment in full, at a price of $14 per share, resulting in proceeds of $61.2 million.

Finally, SunPower Corp said this week that not only would it build its next solar cell fabrication plant in Malaysia with annual production capacity in excess of 1 gigawatt, but it has also completed design and construction of a 1.4-megawatt solar electric power plant project in Hampyeong, South Korea, for Hampyeong Solar Plus, which will generate 1.8 million kilowatt-hours per year.