Players in the solar field - both photovoltaic and concentrating - are optimistic that they will achieve parity with coal, currently the lowest cost generating source, within eight years.  They believe two factors will make that happen.   First, the full social costs of coal including primarily a cost for carbon dioxide emissions will come into play.  Secondly costs for solar generation will continue to decline.  But according to a representative of Abengoa, a very large and sophisticated player in solar, the point at which the costs will meet will be …

[Read more →]

John Mauldin, an economist and investment advisor who often offers both unusual and insightful views recently wrote that new applications for solar power plants are booming.  He said: “The July 21 Fortune has a great article on the rush to build solar power plants in the deserts of California, Arizona, and Nevada. Applications have been filed to build plants that would generate a theoretical 60 gigawatts of electricity. To put that into perspective, California only uses 33 gigawatts. And the biggest and richest firms are lining up to get land …

[Read more →]

Jerome Ball believes that PV cell production may exceed demand by the end of 2008 and that longer term the subsidies of many governments may not continue, leading to reduced growth in demand.   Of course, the second point is exactly what I discussed in Newsletter # 10.  Ball provides an excellent statistical summary of projected PV cell production. read full post

[Read more →]

January 02, 2008   A new company has entered the thermal solar field.  Per their press release: Hamilton Sundstrand, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. [NYSE: UTX], and US Renewables Group have formed a new entity, SolarReserve, to commercialize the concentrated solar power tower technology and corresponding molten salt storage system developed by Rocketdyne. This renewable technology will enable utility-scale solar power generation. It is designed to meet a utility’s needs with a single installation capable of producing up to …

[Read more →]

Scientific American Magazine - January, 2008 A Solar Grand Plan By 2050 solar power could end U.S. dependence on foreign oil and slash greenhouse gas emissions By Ken Zweibel, James Mason and Vasilis Fthenakis Next Back Schott AG/Commercial Handout/EPA/Corbis A massive switch from coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power plants to solar power plants could supply …

[Read more →]

It was the year of the solar stock.  I owned ASTI, among others, but not long or hard enough.  Of course there are only two kinds of stocks: those you own too much of and those you don’t own enough of.  Here is the record for solar stocks.

[Read more →]

Transition to the Electric Economy

New year’s day is a good time for long term thinking and planning. Today I want to relate some fairly visible long term prospects for global energy changes to a few of their more obscure short term investment implications that are actionable.

The great game of the next era in human use of energy is going to be the transition from a petro/electric economy to a fully electric one, motivated by the end of affordable fossil fuels. Transportation is the name of this game because it uses …

[Read more →]

Solar energy ‘revolution’ brings green power closer Panels start solar power ‘revolution’ John Vidal, environment editor The Guardian, Saturday December 29 2007 The holy grail of …

[Read more →]

December 27, 2007 Solar Cell Production Jumps 50 Percent in 2007 Jonathan G. Dorn Production of photovoltaics (PV) jumped to 3,800 megawatts worldwide in 2007, up an estimated 50 percent over 2006. At the end of the year, according to preliminary data, cumulative global production stood at 12,400 megawatts, enough to power 2.4 million U.S. homes. Growing by an impressive average of 48 percent each year since 2002, PV production has been doubling every two years, making it the world’s fastest-growing energy source. Photovoltaics, which …

[Read more →]

Nanosolar, a private company backed by SAC Capital and a variety of respected venture investors, has begun to ship a new type of solar panel that it believes could be a game changer.  The company combines CIGS and roll-printing technologies to produce thin film panels that it sells for 99 cents per watt.  This is a price that the company believes to be competitive with coal on a utility-scale installation.  While unproven, the technology is a potential threat to other solar panel competitors and a potential boon for utilities and …

[Read more →]

A massive switch from coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power plants to solar power plants could supply 69 percent of the U.S.’s electricity and 35 percent of its total energy by 2050.

Read full article

[Read more →]

by Charles Morand Regular readers know I’m a big fan of wind power, especially in North America. I like the fact that the technology and business model are well understood, that most wind projects have good forward revenue visibility, and that wind is close to being competitive with conventional power generation without subsidies. Wind combines the best of both worlds: stable cash-flows and rapid growth. Over the past few months, concentrating solar power [CSP], a form of energy that is about as ancient as …

[Read more →]

Seeking Alpha Vertical integration in this context refers to integrating the different steps in the Polysilicon Based Solar Module production process. Module production involves four steps in chain event: Use the raw material sand (SiO2) to produce a very pure form of silicon called polysilicon. Use polysilicon to produce wafers and ingots. Use …

[Read more →]

The argument is: solar will die when cold fusion is perfected.  So buy palladium. read full post

[Read more →]

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ALGIERS - An Algerian company is planning to build a power cable to Germany to export solar-generated electricity from the Sahara, a state-owned newspaper reported on Wednesday. Tewfik Hasni, chief executive of New Energy Algeria (NEAL), said the 3,000 km (1,875 mile) cable would be laid from the Algerian town of Adrar to the German city of Aachen under a project provisionally entitled "Clean Power From The Desert", El Moudhaid daily reported. …

[Read more →]