Business transactions are very often about relationships — the solar industry is no exception. But have plunging prices of PV thrust upon the nascent global market by the Chinese really spoilt the industry with too much choice? Has the young bachelor industry been too busy speed dating with $0.65/Wp panels at the expense of a stable and more meaningful relationship between investor, developer and consumer expectations of a quality product that is going to stand the test of time?
The media frenzy over the precarious financial situation of one of Japan’s iconic corporate brands and a major PV module producer, Sharp Corporation has raged all week as an expected financial bailout led by Mizuho Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group loomed. On Thursday, September 27, Sharp issued a short statement confirming it had secured both immediate and near-term funding amounting to around US$4.6 billion.
Mitt Romney's joke last week mocking Barack Obama's acceptance of global warming has been ridiculed by US news networks, with perhaps the exception of Fox.
Feed-in-tariffs are a controversial subject in the US where the energy industry likes to pretend that free market economics applies to this sector. You might expect clean energy antagonists to baulk: "Let the government set the price for electricity — are you crazy? Let the market decide."
As US President Barack Obama embarked on what could be his final year in office, he pledged in his State of the Union address to increase energy standards. Amid cries from political activists accusing him of having the least active climate change legislation in recent years, on Tuesday, a partnership between the Department of Interior and the Department of Energy intends to put all the vehement concerns to rest.
Amid last week's crowded halls at Intersolar in San Francisco, a handful of companies were noticeable by their absence. A track devoted to concentrating solar technologies such as CPV and CSP featured Areva, which carved itself a niche in steam augmentation for existing fossil plants, but failed to attract BrightSource and SolarReserve.
Intersolar attendees weren't sure whether they had been invited to a wake or a wedding yesterday as they heard the global outlook for the solar industry.
California has seen a tale of two IPOs over the past couple of months: one was aborted at the last moment; another was the second largest in US history.
As predicted in this PV Tech blog a couple of months ago, Republican presidential campaigners could not resist dragging the Solyndra saga back into the political spotlight.
