Solaire: Paris et Berlin étudient un projet d’usine géante

Les Echos
La France et l’Allemagne planchent sur la création d’une usine de panneaux solaires pour concurrencer les Chinois. Un projet susceptible de répondre aux vœux de François Hollande de créer un « Airbus » de l’énergie.

Nanosolar Reborn as German Silicon Module and BIPV Manufacturer

Greentech Media
Nanosolar was acquired by Smartenergy Renewable and has been rechristened "Smartenergy Renewables Deutschland GmbH." But no CIGS thin-film solar remains in the equation. The new company will now be a crystalline silicon module assembly, a building-integrated PV manufacturer, and an O&M firm, claiming advantage in vertical integration. And manufacturing in Germany. The company will continue to support existing CIGS customers.

For the full story, as seen from the sit of the former Nanosolar CEO can be read here.

Germany Hits 59% Renewable Peak, Grid Does Not Explode

Greentech Media
Wind and solar power peaked at 59.1 percent of German power generation earlier this month. It happened at noon on a very windy and sunny October 3, which is the German holiday commemorating reunification. (Germany also hit peaks of 61 percent, a record, and 59 percent earlier this year.)
Solar and wind provided 36.4 percent of total electricity generation over the entire day, with PV accounting for 11.2 percent.
The electrical grid appears intact but electricity prices took a tumble. According to an analysis by Bernard Chabot of BCCONSULT, low demand from large conventional power plants drove the electricity price index covering Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland to 2.75 cents per kilowatt-hour at 2:00 p.m.

Europe and China Agree to Settle Solar Panel Fight

NYTimes.com
The European Union’s trade chief said on Saturday that a deal had been reached with China to settle a dispute over exports of low-cost solar panels that had threatened to set off a wider trade war between two of the world’s largest economies.
The settlement essentially involves setting a fairly high minimum price [0.56€/W] for sales of Chinese-made solar panels in the European Union to try to prevent them from undercutting European producers. (...) The deal immediately met with ferocious criticism from the European manufacturers that had filed the complaint. (...) The agreement “is contrary in every respect to European law,” said Milan Nitzschke, the president of EU ProSun, an industry group. A minimum price of 0.55 to 0.57 euros was at the level of “the current dumping price for Chinese modules,” the group said in a statement.
The arrangement would cover exports from 90 of about 140 Chinese exporters that were examined during the investigation, and that represent 60 percent of the panels sold in Europe, the government official said. Those 90 companies would no longer face tariffs that were put in place in June. Chinese exporters that did not agree to the terms will still face tariffs that are set to rise to 47.6 percent on Aug. 6 from the current level of 11.8 percent, the official said.

China Divides European Union in Fight Over Tariffs

NYTimes.com
Adroitly alternating the threat of a trade war with the lure of its huge import market, China appears to have driven a deep wedge between Germany and the rest of the European Union. (...) Ms. Merkel said Germany would lobby against duties on Chinese panels. As Chinese and European trade officials stare each other down over next week’s scheduled imposition of big tariffs on the $27 billion worth of solar panels China sells to Europe each year, Germany has come down on China’s side. Notably, Berlin is backing Beijing, even though Europe’s biggest producer of solar equipment, SolarWorld, is a German company that desperately wants the European Union to impose tariffs on the Chinese equipment. Unless the bloc backs off under German pressure, tariffs averaging nearly 50 percent would go into effect June 6, to punish China for the ostensible “dumping” of solar panels at below cost in Europe.
“Europe cannot succumb to blackmail — dumping is illegal, and the E.U. is obliged to defend itself by applying the international trade law,” said Milan Nitzschke, a spokesman for SolarWorld and the president of ProSun, a lobbying group for the European solar energy industry. But many other German companies, which rely more heavily than other European manufacturers on China as a significant market for their exports — whether Volkswagen cars or Siemens factory equipment or various other goods — fear that the dispute over solar panels could lead to an all-out trade war with China, which would be disastrous for their businesses. So far, the German government appears to agree.

SMA announces job cuts of over 1,000

pv-magazine
The world’s biggest photovoltaic inverter manufacturer has said that due to reduced solar support in Europe, it forecasts plummeting sales in 2013 of between €0.9 billion to €1.3 billion, compared to the predicted €1.3 billion to €1.5 billion expected to be achieved this year. "The growth impulses of the non-European photovoltaic markets are not sufficient to compensate for the expected decrease in European demand," stated Pierre-Pascal Urbon, speaker of SMA’s Managing Board.
(...) [T]he company has said it will gradually cut 450 of its worldwide workforce and terminate 600 of its temporary workers. It did not indicate which regions would be affected, however.
SMA has said it will not cut any jobs in its development business, and plans to invest over €100 million in R&D in the next year. "Developing completely new product platforms should reduce production costs significantly by 2014, while at the same time setting new standards for energy management," said the company in a statement released.

Germany urges diplomatic resolution to EU trade case against China

PV-Tech
Germany is continuing to strive for a diplomatic resolution to the European Union's ongoing investigation into the alleged dumping of Chinese solar modules in Europe. Last week, it emerged that the European Commission’s is planning an average of 47% tariffs on Chinese solar module manufacturers, but at a press conference yesterday government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Germany was still working with China to reach a mutually beneficial solution. Seibert said the German chancellor Angela Merkel has always believed the best course of action was an “amicable solution" with China. (...) A spokesman for Germany's economy ministry named the European Commission's position "hard" and said his ministry was urging the commission and China to continue the political dialogue to try and still ultimately reach an amicable solution.

Germany to start subsidies for solar power storage systems in May 2013

SolarServer
The German solar industry welcomes the federal government's announcement that it will support battery systems to accompany solar photovoltaic (PV) generation beginning in May 2013. Germany will subsidize the purchase of new battery storage systems with up to EUR 660 (USD 870) per kWp. In the first year the KfW banking group will provide EUR 25 million (USD 33 million) in funding. (...) The new subsidies also specify that solar energy systems combined with subsidized storage must reduce their output to 60% for the entire payment period. This will allow plant operators to help avoiding production peaks.

100 GW of Solar PV Now Installed in the World Today

Renewable Energy News Article
Cumulative global installed [grid connected] solar PV capacity has topped the 100-gigawatt (GW) milestone, according to preliminary numbers from the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA). (...) Europe's 69 GW of total installed capacity is enough to produce roughly 2.6% of the region's electricity demand this year, and about 5.2% of peak electricity demand, according to the EPIA.
There's another important milestone in the EPIA's tally of solar PV. Countries outside of Europe connected 13 GW, up from 8 GW in 2011 and just 3 GW in 2010; at the same time Europe's PV installations fell from 23 GW in 2011 to 17 GW in 2012, its first decline since 2006. (...) Eight nations added at least a gigawatt of grid-connected capacity in 2012: Germany, China, Italy, the U.S., Japan, France, the U.K., and India. Thirteen nations (up from 8 in 2011) are in the gigawatt-club of cumulative solar installations: Germany, Italy, the U.S., China, Japan, Spain, France, Belgium, Australia, the Czech Republic, the U.K., Greece, and India.

 

German government to introduce new subsidies for solar energy storage

SolarServer
The German Federal Ministry of the Environment has announced that new incentives for energy storage systems for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations will begin in February 2013.
The three-year subsidy program will have a EUR 50 million (USD 67 million) budget and will be available for PV systems with a capacity smaller than 30 kW, providing a grant of EUR 800 (USD 1,080) per kWh of storage. No additional certification will be needed, and self-consumed solar power will not be eligible for participation in the nation's feed-in tariff.

Germany Added Record Solar Panels in 2012 Even as Subsidies Cut

Bloomberg
Renewable-energy developers in Germany, the world’s biggest solar market, added a record number of panels last year even after subsidies were cut back. Solar installations climbed to 7,634 megawatts, up 2 percent from 7,485 megawatts in 2011, according to figures from the Bundesnetzagentur grid regulator and the Environment Ministry. That was more than double the government’s maximum target of 3,500 megawatts. (...) “More than 80 percent of installations came in the first nine months,” he said today by phone. Environment Minister Peter Altmaier expects developers to add 4,000 megawatts to 4,500 megawatts this year, Strube said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has cut solar-power subsidies to reduce the burden on consumer electricity bills of Germany’s renewable-energy expansion. Still, the above-market tariffs remain at levels that allow developers to profit, while component prices have continued to drop amid an oversupply.

German PV output covered 6.1% of electricity demand in the first nine months of 2012

BDEW German Energy Blog
According to the latest figures by the Federal Association of the Energy and Water Industry (BDEW) for January to September 2012, solar power generation increased by 50% year-on-year. Renewables contributed 26% to electricity consumption in the first nine months of this year. (...) Wind energy remained the largest contributor of renewable energy in the first three quarters, accounting for 8.6% (2011: 8.0%), followed by photovoltaics accounting for 6.1% (4.1) and energy from biomass with 5.8% (2011: 5.4%). Hydro power contributed 3.8% (2011: 3.3%) and power from waste incineration plants and other renewable energies accounted for an unchanged share of 0.9%.

Germany's Siemens to give up solar energy business

Businessweek
Siemens AG announced plans to give up its loss-making solar business and concentrate its renewable energy business on wind and hydroelectric power. The German industrial conglomerate, whose products range from trains to turbines, said Monday it's in talks with possible buyers, but offered no details. It said the move is part of a wider effort to increase its productivity and efficiency. (...) Siemens said that "due to the changed framework conditions, lower growth and strong price pressure in the solar markets, the company's expectations for its solar energy activities have not been met." Several German solar manufacturers, including Q-Cells SE and Solar Millennium AG, have filed for insolvency over the past year. Another German company in the solar market, SMA AG, announced last week that it will slash up to 1,000 jobs — about a fifth of its global workforce — amid falling revenues and a possible annual loss in 2013 due to the growing price pressures.

Q.Cells has a new owner

Q.CELLS
Q-Cells SE’s insolvency administrator Henning Schorisch has transferred the photovoltaics company to its new owner today. More than 80 per cent of jobs were thus secured, despite the insolvency proceedings.
The company was bought by an indirect subsidiary of Hanwha Chemical Corporation, which is part of one of the largest South Korean corporations with 2011 sales of USD 31.6 billion. (...) “This is particularly positive news as the solar industry in Germany, but also globally, is currently going through a heavy crisis and many companies are facing failure,” Schorisch emphasised today, after the company was handed over to Hanwha. “In Hanwha, Q-Cells found a new owner committed to the locations in Saxony-Anhalt and Berlin.” Following Solon, Solibro and SunStrom, Q-Cells is the fourth larger solar company this year having been saved under the management of an insolvency administrator from the law firm hww wienberg wilhelm.
In context of a transferred restructuring process, Hanwha takes over more than 80 per cent of the workforce – roughly 1,300 out of a total of 1,500 employees are keeping their jobs – as well as the far larger part of the entire Q-Cells Group: in Germany, this pertains to the site in Bitterfeld-Wolfen with solar cell and module research, development and production as well as the sales location in Berlin; abroad, the site in Malaysia with an unchanged number of about 500 employees as well as the sales companies in the US, Japan and Australia. The integration process entailed job cuts in Q-Cells’ administration department, as there are overlaps with the Hanwha organisation, as well as in production, which is also due to the progress in modernising the production line at the Thalheim site, which was accomplished during the insolvency process.

Europe Investigates Chinese Solar Panels

NYTimes.com
The European Union began a broad investigation Thursday into whether Chinese companies have exported solar powerequipment for less than the cost of making it, in what amounts to history’s biggest anti-dumping investigation by value. The case covers imports from China worth €21 billion, or $26.5 billion, last year, a hefty 6.5 percent of all E.U. imports of Chinese goods. The European case is four or five times larger by value than a similar investigation under way in the United States, because the Union is the biggest export market for Chinese solar panels. (...)  European leaders including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, wary of retaliation by China, had urged the commission to seek a negotiated solution. China could, in response, impose duties on products it imports from Europe, including polysilicon, one of the main components of solar panels. (...) EU ProSun [coalition of companies assembled by SolarWorld ], said China had been dumping solar panels on the European market for two years, contributing to the bankruptcy of 20 European manufacturers this year alone. Milan Nitzschke, the president of EU ProSun and a vice president of SolarWorld, said that prices of Chinese solar equipment sold in Europe would have been 60 percent to 90 percent higher last year had the products not been dumped on the market.

Reaction: Chinese PV manufacturers respond to EU dumping investigation

Trade War Brews Between EU and China Over Solar Panels

Spiegel online
This week, a group of European solar panel firms asked the European Commission to levy punitive tariffs on their Chinese rivals, who they accuse of selling products at unfairly low prices. Chinese manufacturers are outraged, warning on Thursday that a trade war could be brewing.

BBC News
Chinese solar panel manufacturers have urged Beijing to respond to a threat of European anti-dumping restrictions.

Forbes

“Germany-based SolarWorld has once again demonstrated that it is willing to undermine the world’s solar industry in a desperate effort to avoid competition in the marketplace,” added the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy . “The entire global solar industry – manufacturers, suppliers, installers and consumers – has benefited from the sharp decline in the price of solar cells, and our industry’s future success is predicated on our ability to continually improve the economics of solar electricity generation.”

Centrotherm Joins the List of German Solar Insolvencies

SolarServer
centrotherm photovoltaics AG (Blaubeuren, Germany) on July 10th, 2012 has submitted an application to the relevant District Court of Ulm for the launching of insolvency protection proceedings (pursuant to the German Act Relating to the Further Simplification of the Reorganization of Companies [ESUG], and Section 270b of the German Insolvency Directive [InsO]), and for the opening of insolvency proceedings under its own administration in connection with this application.

GTM

German photovoltaic panel manufacturers are faced with reduced feed-in tariffs, increased competition from China, and a global oversupply of solar modules. Solar manufacturing tool and production line vendors vendors like centrotherm are faced with the same massive and persistent solar overcapacity.  GTM Research (...) estimates module supply to be in excess of global demand by nearly 100 percent this year, or roughly 59 gigawatts of total supply compared to 30 gigawatts of total demand. It's a dire situation for any equipment vendor. Centrotherm joins Germany's Q-Cells, Soltecture, Odersun, Inventux, Solar Millennium, Solarhybrid, and Sovello in the group of the country's extremely troubled or shuttered PV firms. Q-Cells was Germany's -- and once the globe's -- largest solar manufacturer. It is now on the brink of bankruptcy. As Shyam Mehta, GTM Senior Solar Analyst, has said, "'Consolidation' is a nice word that refers to a lot of ugly things.”

Schott Solar to quit crystalline silicon PV manufacturing

SolarServer
Citing "sever deterioration in market conditions" Schott Solar AG (Mainz, Germany) has announced that it will close its crystalline silicon solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing business in 2012. (...) The company will continue to manufacturing amorphous silicon thin film PV modules in Jena, Germany, as well as components for concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. Schott has more than 54 years of experience in PV manufacturing. The company began producing PV cells for space travel in 1958, and for terrestrial applications in the 1960's. The company began series production of PV modules in Europe in 1978.
A large number of German PV manufacturers have either left the business or declared insolvency since December 2012, including former PV manufacturing market leader Q-Cells SE, Inventux, SOLON SE, Soltecture GmbH and Sovello GmbH.

South Korea's Hanwha may buy Q-Cells

Reuters
South Korean group Hanwha may buy insolvent German solar group Q-Cells, once the world's largest maker of solar cells, a spokesman for Hanwha Corp said on Friday.

PV Feed-in tariff dispute continues in German government

SolarServer
The German federal and state governments have failed to come to a compromise on solar photovoltaic (PV) feed-in tariff reductions during an official government arbitration session, which will now continue on June 27th, 2012. (...) Analysts have noted that while the Bundesrat may hope to change certain provisions of the cuts, including timing, the overall scope of the cuts are unlikely to change.

The division over the feed-in tariff cuts falls both upon party and state lines. While left parties including Social-Democrats, Greens and The Left are opposed to the cuts, these parties form a minority in the current government. Additional opposition has come from inside Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party in Bavaria, the CSU.