Since China announced expanded incentives for solar power several weeks ago, domestic manufacturers have inked numerous deals with municipalities and provinces for the development of hundreds of megawatts of photovoltaic power.
This week LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) announced an agreement with Yancheng City of Jiangsu Province for the development of up to 500 megawatts (MW) of solar power. These include ground-mounted, rooftop and building integrated systems to be built over the next five years.
ReneSola Ltd (NYSE: SOL; AIM: SOLA) announced a similar agreement for up to 150 megawatts (MW) to be built over the next four years. That project, in the city of Wuzhong, is budgeted at approximately US$ 706 million.
Suntech Power Holdings (NYSE: STP) recently announced four separate agreements for solar power farms with a total capacity of 1.8 gigawatts, and Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) signed a contract for up to 510 MW. While solar panel prices are likely to drop further in coming years, these Chinese firms are at least assured of continuing demand.
In California, two major power companies have applied for Department of Energy funding to develop energy storage systems for renewable power. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) applied for $25 million in grants to design an underground reservoir for compressed air, and Southern California Edison (SCE) asked for the same amount to build an enormous battery system.
Pacific Gas and Electric ‘s system would use excess energy produced by wind or solar power to pump air into an underground storage space. When winds die down, or during hours of darkness, the compressed air would be released on demand through a turbine to produce electricity.
Southern California Edison wants to pay lithium-ion batter maker A123 Systems to build a massive battery in California’s Tehachapi region. Wind farms in the area are expected to produce about 4,500 megawatts of power by 2015. The Department of Energy is expected to announce grant awards in November.
Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (7011.T) announced a major step towards entering the lithium-ion battery industry. The company will begin building what it calls a commercial production verification plant for industrial-use batteries. These will be used in heavy machinery like fork lifts, as well as large stationary applications. Based on its experience with the verification plant, Mitsubishi Heavy will make a final decision in 2011 concerning full-scale production of lithium-ion batteries beginning in 2012. According to reports, the company also expressed interest in getting involved with Better Place, which is the California company building charging networks around the world for electric passenger vehicles.
DuPont (NYSE: DD) announced plans to invest $120 million to expand production of a product used in the backsheets of solar panels. The chemical company released details of a multi-phase expansion for its Tedlar® product line. The company said it will increase production by more than 50% for the monomer and resin used as a backsheet component for weatherproofing solar panels. DuPont said construction has begun for new monomer and resin facilities in Louisville, Ky., and Fayetteville, N.C. The facilities are scheduled to start up in mid-2010, and DuPont said it expects that sales will exceed $1 billion by 2012.
U.S. engineering firm Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) announced a contract to provide design services for e-Solar. e-Solar unveiled its first 5-MW concentrating solar thermal plant last month. Fluor will provide the basic engineering and optimization work to create a scalable design package of 46 MW that will serve as a reference for future developers. e-Solar already has signed contracts for hundreds of MW worth of capacity based on its concentrating solar technology.
Another leading concentrating solar thermal company, BrightSource Energy, has partnered with Chevron (NYSE: CVX) (NYSE: CVX) to produce steam that will be used to increase production at an older oil field in California. A solar thermal plant will be built on about 100 acres owned by Chevron. Steam produced by the plant will partially offset steam produced onsite by burning natural gas. Chevron pumps the steam into an oil field outside Caolinga, California, to lower the viscosity of heavy oil, making it easier to extract from the well. This is the first such use of BrightSource’s technology, and financial terms were not disclosed.
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