Forbes.com notes that the stock prices of major solar power companies like LDK and JA Solar Holdings fell yesterday, as the companies continue to face difficulties from reduced demand and lack of credit.
Here’s a roundup of the stocks they profiled in the article referenced above:
American Superconductor Corporation announced yesterday that the company has just received its first order from the Chinese power grid market. The order, placed by Beijing SNTA Electric Power Technique Co., was for one of AMSC’s D-VAR voltage regulation systems. Under the contract, AMSC will provide Beijing SNTA Electric Power Technique Co one of these systems by the middle of this year.
The D-VAR system makes it possible for wind farms to connect to the larger … Read the rest
Castle & Cooke Hawaii and SunPower announced today that their new solar energy farm, the La Ola Solar Farm, is now producing solar energy on the Hawaiian island of Lana’i. Utilizing SunPower trackers, the new facility is capable of producing 1.2 MW of solar energy, enough to meet 30% of Lana’i’s electricity needs.
Here’s what Tom Werner, SunPower’s CEO, had to say about the event:
… Read the rest"Clean, reliable solar power will become a core energy investment
Two new studies have been released showing that federal investment in a "smart grid" could provide hundreds of thousands of new jobs for Americans. The first study, by the Gridwise Alliance trade group, concludes that with a $16 billion federal investment in smart grid incentives, $64 billion in smart grid-related energy projects would be produced, yielding 280,000 new jobs,150,000 by the end of this year.
IBM also released a study on the issue, this one … Read the rest
CREE just announced that they have received an order for 4,200 of their LR24 recessed LED luminaires from the US government. The energy-efficient LEDs will be installed in Wedge 5 of the Pentagon as part of a major renovation from the building. To commemorate the effort to bring LED light into the Pentagon, a signing service was held today in which John J. Kubricky, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Advanced Systems and Concepts, and … Read the rest
Honda announced on Friday that it is in the process of developing an electric motorcycle. Production and sales of the electric motorcycle should begin next year, in 2010, but there’s no word yet about whether or not it will be available stateside. Motorauthority.com quotes Honda’s CEO, Takeo Fukui, as stating that the electric motorcycle is aimed primarily at "newly emerging countries in regions such as Asia and South America", because "motorcycles are being used for … Read the rest
Canadian utility Trans-Alta announced that their Kent Hills Wind Farm is now up and running. The wind farm will generate up to 96 megawatts of electricity for TransAlta customers, and can be expanded in the future to produce an additional 54 MW. This brings TransAlta’s wind power capacity to a grand total of 248 MW.
Hopefully, this will boost TransAlta’s stock somewhat. Upstreamonline.com notes that
… Read the restTransAlta shares fell 9 Canadian cents to C$25.16 on the
Global Energy Systems, a subsidiary of Global Energy Holdings Group, Inc, has signed a contract with AGL Services Company, a major Georgia power company. Under the agreement, Global Energy Systems will help the utility find ways to conserve energy and increase its renewable energy offerings for customers.
Global Energy Systems’ President, Mike Ellis, commented on the agreement:
… Read the rest“This agreement with AGL Resources opens up a number of opportunities for Global Energy in the stable gas
With the establishment of a new photovoltaic systems division, Toshiba is trying to carve out a piece of the solar energy market for itself. Toshiba will not be targeting residences or the "average Joe;" rather, they are angling for large industrial customers. Also, Toshiba will not make solar panels in-house. Instead, they will buy solar panels from outside companies and use them along with Toshiba’s proprietary supercharge ion battery (SCiB) technology and the companies … Read the rest
After several days of large gains, solar stocks are going to have a difficult time tomorrow after LDK Solar (LDK) came out after the bell and cut its expectations for 4Q and FY09 citing .. you guessed it! Lower demand.. oh and a delay in ramping production at its 1000 MT polysilicon plant which is expected to offer peak production around mid 2009. Construction of the 15K MT polysilicon plant remains on schedule and is … Read the rest