The biggest, ongoing investor story over the last two weeks has been the strong quarterly reports posted by solar companies, despite economic downturn and winter storms in China that disrupted deliveries of production facilities there.
The following companies all met or beat Wall Street expectations for the quarter, pushing up the price of solar stocks across the board as demand continues to grow.
- Suntech Power (Nasdaq: STP) doubled earnings
- Solarfun (Nasdaq: SOLF) doubled analyst projections
- Q-Cells (QCE.F) increased production and sales
- LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) increased profit 11.2% and sales 21.1%
- Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) doubled Wall Street expectations
- Spire Corporation (Nasdaq: SPIR) reported 5th straight quarter of record revenues
In other solar news, Ontario-based ARISE Technologies (TSX: APV) sold $45 million shares of common stock to support production in its new German facility.
Google.org and BP Alternative Energy were two of the funders that added to a $115 million funding round for BrightSource Energy, a company developing utility-scale, concentrating solar systems to provide California with clean energy.
Colorad-based Ascent Solar (Nasdaq: ASTI) priced an offering of nearly 4 million shares of common stock at $14 per share. The thin-film solar company has recently been signing collaborative agreements to enter the market for building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) roofing materials.
Silicon Valley-based SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWR) announced plans to build a fabrication plant in Malaysia with a capacity of 1,000 MW. This will be the company’s third production facility. It is expected to begin production in 2010.
Sharp Corp., (6753.T) one of the largest producers of solar cells in the world, signed an agreement with Enel SpA (ENEL.MI) to jointly develop a production facility in Italy with a target capacity of 161 MW to begin production in 2011.
Hoku Scientific (HOKU.O) and Merrill Lynch ended their funding agreement to pay for a large portion of the construction of Hoku’s planned polysilicon plant. The company said it will raise the needed funds through a stock offering instead. No specific reason was given for cancelling the agreement, but HOKU has everything riding on successful completion of the plant.
Wind Industry
Indian wind turbine maker Suzlon (SUZL.BO), which report a 30% increase in quarterly profits, announced that it would double its manufacturing capacity in China to 1,200 MW over the next 2 to 3 years.
The world’s largest renewable energy operator, Spanish company Iberdrola, said it plans to invest $8 billion in the U.S. between 2008 and 2010 to gain a 15% share of the wind power market. At the end of March the company owned 2,400 megawatts (MW) of wind power capacity in the U.S. and intends to boost that figure to 3,600 MW by the end of the year.
After securing a major order for 218 wind turbines from FPL Energy (NYSE: FPL), Germany-based Siemens Energy (NYSE: SI) announced that it will double production capacity at its Fort Madison, Iowa factory, which opened last year to produce turbine blades.
Mesa Power LLP, a company created by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, placed an order with General Electric (NYSE: GE) to purchase 667 wind turbines capable of generating 1,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The turbines will be used in the first phase of the Pampa Wind Project that will be the world’s largest wind energy project, with more than 4,000 MW of electricity.
Other News
Ormat Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: ORA), the only vertically-integrated company primarily engaged in the geothermal and recovered energy power business, announced that it is selling more than 3 million shares of common stock to Lehman Brothers Inc. (NYSE: LEH).
DuPont (NYSE: DFT) and Genencor, a division of Danisco A/S (DCO.CO), announced an agreement to form DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC, a 50/50 joint venture. The companies plan an initial three-year investment of US$140 million to make next-generation biofuel from corn stover and sugar cane bagasse.
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