Does this L-II shot show the MM's as they were just prior to the close?
Looks like the MM's are wanting to move the needle here. They offer some liquidity and then lift.

Keep it coming! This should move PENNIES given the right stimulus.

L-II

And no one hit them. Another good sign.

Building bid and a wavering ask, I like it!

Ousted First Solar CEO's $30 Million Pay Tops Chevron's Chief



Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Rob Gillette, who stepped down as chief executive officer of First Solar Inc. this week after boosting panel manufacturing capacity during a slump, may be eligible for an $8.9 million severance package and collected $29.9 million for his initial 15 months on the job.

The world's biggest maker of thin-film solar panels rewarded Gillette while its shares fell 60 percent from the day he started in October 2009 through Oct. 24, the day before he resigned. Compensation for Gillette, 50, is at least 19 percent more than Chevron Corp. CEO John Watson earned over the same period, when the U.S. energy company's shares gained 54 percent.

Gillette's pay, described in regulatory filings for 2009 and 2010, also show a $5 million signing bonus to lure him from Honeywell International Inc. First Solar received $3.07 billion in loan guarantees from the U.S. government to support projects using its technology, which is a rival to silicon-based cells made by Chinese companies led by Suntech Power Holdings Co.

“Gillette's compensation was unusually front-loaded, so when it came time to throw him out he had them on the hook for a lot of money,” Graef Crystal, a compensation expert and Bloomberg News consultant based in Las Vegas, said in an interview. “This wasn't pay for performance, it was pay for future performance.”

More Than Chevron

Chevron's Watson was paid a total of $8.8 million in 2009 and $16.3 million last year, according to Chevron filings.

Gillette earned a total of $8.07 million in salary and other compensation in 2008, his last full year leading Honeywell's aerospace division, according to company filings. His compensation was $4.14 million in 2009, before he left to run First Solar.

First Solar almost doubled production capacity as the market became oversupplied and prices for solar panels plunged, contributing to the bankruptcies of three U.S. manufacturers including Solyndra LLC, the recipient of a $535 million U.S. loan guarantee.

Ted Meyer, First Solar spokesman, wouldn't discuss Gillette's compensation. Gillette couldn't be reached through his corporate e-mail account, which was closed, and his home phone number is unlisted.

First Solar Chairman Michael Ahearn, 54, was named interim CEO on Oct. 25 and the next day slashed the Tempe, Arizona-based company's sales and profit forecasts for 2011. He plans to reduce capital spending to survive a global decline in demand and prices for solar products while shifting resources to expand sales in new regions.

Gillette's severance package, according to First Solar's proxy statement filed April 13, includes $2.55 million in cash and $19,111 in medical benefits.

Compensation in Shares

It also includes as much as $6.33 million in stock compensation, based on the company's $130.14 share price at the end of last year.

First Solar rose 15 percent to $52.90 a share in New York today, the biggest gain since April 29, 2010. It plunged 25 percent, the most ever, on Oct. 25 after the company announced Gillette's departure.

Crystal said the stock-based portion of the package is probably worth less now, depending on the date the company uses to calculate his severance, and it will be difficult to calculate its exact value.

First Solar's expects its production capacity to reach 2,236 megawatts by the end of this year, up from 1,228 megawatts at the end of 2009, mostly from new factories in Germany and Malaysia, according to a second-quarter company overview.

Competing Against Polysilicon

First Solar's thin-film panels compete against products made from polysilicon, which is rapidly falling in price, mainly because of rising production from Chinese manufacturers led by GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd. The spot price for polysilicon fell 9.1 percent to $37.40 a kilogram in the week ended Oct. 24, and has dropped 19 percent since the start of the month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Gillette was the third high-level First Solar executive to leave this year. The company's president of operations Bruce Sohn stepped down in April and wasn't replaced. And last month Jens Meyerhoff, president of its utility systems unit, departed.

Meyerhoff, who was chief financial officer during the company's 2006 initial public offering, may be a candidate for the newly opened CEO position, said Hari Chandra Polavarapu, an analyst at Auriga USA LLC in New York.

“Meyerhoff quit in August following differences with Gillette,” and having Ahearn back in charge may entice him to return, Chandra said in an interview. “First Solar's board would do well in bringing him back as CEO quickly.”

Gillette did well to secure such a large package on his departure, Crystal said. “The sign-on bonus metastasized into an enormous sign-out bonus.”

http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LTOU3V1A74E901-7ICSIQP50CT0JOFB1E2REJE37T

could be a fakeout as well but I'm sick of waiting for CSKH to make its move, so I hope we've seen the end of the this downtrend.

I believe CSKH falling to less than a penny has and is attracting eyeballs.

Add to that the ASK has been movable and I'm liking it!

The worm just might be turning!

Like a breathe of fresh air watching the pps lift, albeit ever so slightly

Management really put a lid on dilution in 2011.

Lets hope it stays that way. (we'll know more Nov 15th)


AS: 300M

OS: 213,635,970 (08-03-2011)
OS: 211,057,421 (05-09-2011)

OS: 206,271,976 (03-31-2011)
OS: 178,920,327 (12-31-2010)
OS: 172,435,479 (11-16-2010)
OS: 143,280,053 (09-30-2010)
OS: 121,479,279 (08-19-2010)
OS: 84,749,254 (05-07-2010)

OS: 79,373,427 (03-24-2010)
OS: 71,146,807 (01-06-2010)

We'll all find out in 20 days

It would be nice if something would leak out before then

Right now the whole sector is being beaten down by the powers that be. Hopefully the tables will turn soon and the sector as a whole becomes sought after. Then good/decent numbers for CSKH could provide a solid boost. -That's my best case scenario

Is that on ClearSkies website?

sounds like a PPA to me...

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Solar power is beginning to go mainstream

The biggest cloud hanging over the solar industry, the high cost of panels, is finally lifting

Jonathan Fahey, AP Energy Writer, On Sunday October 23, 2011, 1:57 pm EDT

NEW YORK (AP) -- Solar energy may finally get its day in the sun.

The high costs that for years made it impractical as a mainstream source of energy are plummeting. Real estate companies are racing to install solar panels on office buildings. Utilities are erecting large solar panel "farms" near big cities and in desolate deserts. And creative financing plans are making solar more realistic than ever for homes.

Solar power installations doubled in the United States last year and are expected to double again this year. More solar energy is being planned than any other power source, including nuclear, coal, natural gas and wind.

"We are at the beginning of a turning point," says Andrew Beebe, who runs global sales for Suntech Power, a manufacturer of solar panels.

Solar's share of the power business remains tiny. But its promise is great. The sun splashes more clean energy on the planet in one hour than humans use in a year, and daytime is when power is needed most. And solar panels can be installed near where people use power, reducing or eliminating the costs of moving power through a grid.

Solar power has been held back by costs. It's still about three times more expensive than electricity produced by natural gas, according to estimates by the Energy Information Administration.

But the financial barriers are falling fast. Solar panel prices have plunged by two-thirds since 2008, making it easier for installers to market solar's financial benefits, and not simply its environmental ones. Homeowners who want to go solar can do so for free and pay the same or less for their power.

Last month two of the nation's biggest utilities, Exelon and NextEra Energy, each acquired a large California solar power farm in the early stages of development. Another utility, NRG Energy, has announced a plan with Bank of America and the real estate firm Prologis to spend $1.4 billion to install solar systems on 750 commercial rooftops.

Nationwide, solar power installations grew by 102 percent from 2009 to 2010, by far the fastest rate in the past five years.

"Every manufacturer globally is looking around for the next major growth market, and the U.S. is the first one everyone points to," says Shayle Kann, managing director for solar research at GTM Research.

Making solar affordable still requires large tax breaks and other subsidies from federal and state governments. The main federal subsidy pays for 30 percent of the cost of a residential system. When state and other subsidies are added, as much as 75 percent of the cost can be covered.

But prices of solar panels, the squares of crystalline silicon or thin layers of metal films that turn the sun's rays into electricity, are falling so fast that its advocates now credibly claim that solar will be able to compete with fossil fuels even when the federal solar subsidy shrinks by two-thirds in 2016.

"Over the past 10 years the industry has made the case that we needed to increase scale so we could reduce prices," says Arno Harris, CEO of solar developer Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Sharp Corp. "We're seeing it happen."

The falling prices have made it easier for solar installers to raise the money needed to grow. And they've made solar power systems so affordable they can appeal to homeowners who want to save on their electric bill, not just reduce their environmental impact.

Tim Johnson, a high school math teacher in Philadelphia, had wanted to put solar panels on his roof for years. Like many people concerned about the environment, the thought of powering his home without burning fossil fuels had a strong appeal. But with two kids in college, he couldn't justify spending $15,000, after subsidies, to do it.

But since March, he has generated 50 percent to 75 percent of his electricity with a set of solar panels on his roof, saving 20 percent on his electricity bills. His upfront cost for the system: $0.

Instead of buying and installing the panels himself, he signed up with SunRun, one of a handful of companies that build, own and maintain solar systems on homes. These companies earn money by charging customers for the power the panels produce.

Johnson pays SunRun $52 a month, and he pays his traditional utility for whatever extra power he needs from the grid. In all, he pays $60 to $100 a month for power; he used to pay $90 to $120.

SunRun can charge Johnson a competitive rate because federal and state subsidies pay for a portion of the installation. Also, the arrangement allows SunRun to take advantage of one of solar's big advantages. Because it is generated near where it is needed, it doesn't have to pass through hundreds of miles of wires, transformers and other equipment. The power price SunRun has to beat in order to entice customers like Johnson is an expensive retail rate, bloated with transmission and distribution charges that home solar doesn't incur.

It would be cheaper over the long run for a homeowner to buy and install a solar system because he would not have to pay a company like SunRun for financing, service and maintenance. But these plans have growing appeal because they don't require homeowners to lay out thousands of dollars up front.

In California, which leads the nation in solar power installations, 51 percent of the residential solar systems installed through the first three quarters of this year were sold with these plans, up from 12 percent in 2009.

SunRun and competitors such as SolarCity and Sungevity are expanding into more states, including Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Last month, Google announced it would create a fund that local installers in every state can tap so they too can offer no-money-down plans.

Some installers are teaming up with big hardware chains Home Depot and Lowe's in an effort to expose solar to customers who might not otherwise consider it.

"Awareness is still one of our biggest problems," says Lynn Jurich, co-founder and president of SunRun, which has a partnership with Home Depot.

Solar panel prices have been declining for years because of lower costs for polycrystalline silicon, the main raw material for most solar panels, and larger-scale manufacturing, especially in Asia. In the last six months, demand has dropped sharply in Germany, the world's biggest solar market, in response to shrinking subsidies. This has created a global glut of solar panels and accelerated the decline in prices.

Solar panels, which are priced based on the amount of power they can produce during full sunshine, sold for $1.34 per watt in mid-September, according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That's down from $1.90 at the beginning of 2010. In 2008, they sold for $4 a watt.

The glut has been gut-wrenching for companies that make solar panels. Many of them remain profitable and are growing. But three U.S. panel makers have filed for bankruptcy in two months, including Solyndra, a solar panel maker that received a $528 million federal loan.

Falling profit margins are scaring investors. The stock price of First Solar Inc. has fallen from $170 in April to $53.77. Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. has fallen from $11 to $2.07 over the same period.

The Solyndra bankruptcy has sparked a political uproar. Republicans have accused the Obama administration of pushing for Solyndra's loan for political reasons and have used the bankruptcy to question Obama's plan to help boost the economy by subsidizing clean energy projects.

The market will not get any easier for small solar panel makers. General Electric Co., Samsung and other big companies are entering the market. This should increase supply and bring down costs even further. GE announced this month that it would build the largest panel factory in the U.S., near Denver.

But what has been treacherous for solar panel makers has been a boon for companies that market and install solar systems, for companies that make electronics and other parts for solar systems, and for solar customers.

To be sure, solar is growing from a very small base. All of the panels now installed across the nation produce enough electricity to power 600,000 homes, or about as much electricity as one large coal-fired power plant.

There are 30,000 megawatts' worth of solar projects awaiting approval in the U.S., according to the American Public Power Association. Not all of them will be built, either because of regulatory or financial hurdles. But even if only half that is ultimately built, it would be five times what is already installed.

"We're going in the direction the planet and the industry needs to go," says Harris.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Solar-power-is-beginning-to-apf-254182986.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=

1239

sadly to say that could have been someone taking a %99.99 loss.

ubss and vert joining nite, keeping a firm lid at .0075

This blows!

panel price drop continues

By Matt Daily

DALLAS | Wed Oct 19, 2011 2:01pm EDT

(Reuters) - Solar panel prices are falling and some buyers appear to be holding off purchases in the hopes of even cheaper prices, confounding installers' business plans, according to the head of Germany's Phoenix Solar.

Those conditions are likely to drive some in the solar industry out of business and will force others into mergers, Andreas Haenel, chief executive officer of Phoenix told Reuters at the Solar Power International meeting.

The company, which designs and builds large solar power installations, sharply cut its sales and profit forecasts last week largely because of a write-down in the value of the solar panels it had purchased, sending its shares plummeting.

Prices for the panels that turn sunlight into electricity have slumped as much as 40 percent this year, with much of that decline coming between May and July when companies unloaded their inventory onto the market.

For Phoenix, that decline hurt the value of panels it had yet to receive.

"We had to make the writedowns while the inventory was still on the ship," Haenel said.

And those price declines, which have shrunk profit margins at the module makers such as Suntech Power Holdings, First Solar, Yingli Green Energy and Q-Cells, are continuing.

"The spiral of prices going down hasn't ended," Haenel said.

European demand for solar panels suffered in the first half of the year as Germany, the No. 1 market in the world, trimmed its subsidy, and installers in Italy, the second-largest market, awaited the rollout of new incentives there.

Uncertainty and declines in panel prices appear to have delayed some deals that Phoenix was expecting at the end of the second quarter.

"More than 100 megawatts of contracts that we thought we were very close to finalizing suddenly disappeared," he said.

Demand did not pick up until late in September, he said, and Germany could still see 5 gigawatts of capacity installed by the end of the year, when incentives there will decline again.

Based on the number of installations in Germany, Haenel estimated that the price support for solar electricity there will be cut 15 percent, the steepest possible reduction under government rules.

Still, demand in Germany should be strong since profit returns on projects in the German market have risen, reaching the mid-teens on a pretax basis.

"It's much higher than it would be normally," he said.

The global solar industry is undergoing a shakeout that is likely to see some companies closing their doors and others that may be bought out.

"There is a consolidation needed and a consolidation is coming," Haenel said.

He declined to comment on whether Phoenix would play a role in that expected consolidation.

(Additional reporting by Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/19/us-phoenixsolar-idUSTRE79I5YS20111019

U.S. solar manufacturers seek duties against China


Wed Oct 19, 2011 2:00pm EDT

* China wants to 'gut' U.S. market, manufacturers say

* U.S. arm of German company leads the drive.

* U.S. is a net importer of photovoltaic modules (Recasts with announcement)

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - U.S. solar manufacturers on Wednesday asked the Obama administration to slap duties of more than 100 percent on imports from China that they said were unfairly undercutting U.S. prices and destroying American jobs.

"Let us be clear, China has a plan for our market -- to gut it and own it," said Gordon Brinser, president of SolarWorld Industries Americas Inc at a news conference.

Trade relations with China have become a hot issue ahead of the 2012 U.S. presidential and congressional elections. The Senate last week passed a bill aimed at Beijing's currency practices although the bill faces an uphill battle in the House of Representatives to become law.

Next week, the House Ways and Means Committee plans a hearing to dive into a broad array of Chinese trade actions that are causing concern in the United States.

The U.S. solar industry has been hit hard by competition from China and other countries.

A coalition of seven companies led by SolarWorld Industries accused China of a long list of illegal subsidies and pricing practices to grab global market share.

Some trade experts have warned that the Obama administration needs to tread carefully since the United States also has programs to support the sector.

Last month, U.S. solar panel maker Solyndra filed for bankruptcy, burdened with $783 million in secured debt and squeezed by falling prices caused by an industry glut.

Its downfall has become a political embarrassment for the Obama administration, which had promoted the company as an example of how it planned to spur development in clean energy technology and provided a government guarantee on a $535 million loan Solyndra has said it may not repay in full.

STRONG DEMAND

The United States was a net exporter of solar energy products last year, due to strong demand from China, Germany and Japan for U.S.-made polysilicon and capital equipment used to make solar panels.

U.S. photovoltaic-related exports totaled $5.6 billion in 2010, compared with imports of $3.7 billion, according to a study by GTM Research prepared for the Solar Energy Industries Association, a U.S. trade group not involved in the case announced on Wednesday.

The same report showed the United States was a net importer of the modules that transform sunlight into electricity. It imported $2.4 billion of the product, including $1.4 billion from China and $480 million from Mexico.

U.S. exports of the photovoltaic modules totaled $1.2 billion in 2010, or half the level of imports.

SolarWorld is the U.S. arm of Germany's SolarWorld AG, which is one of Germany's largest solar products producers and has sought to expand into the growing U.S. market.

Last month, SolarWorld shut its Camarillo, California, production plant due to the steep drop in solar panel prices.

SolarWorld and other German solar companies have faced increasing competition in their home market in recent years as Chinese companies entered and drove down panel prices.

"In area after area, the Chinese do not play by the rules," said Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who last month urged President Barack Obama to use U.S. trade law to restrict solar panel imports from China.

While industries such as steel have relied heavily on U.S. anti-dumping and countervailing duties to restrict foreign competition, the solar case appeared to be the first time the renewable energy sector has turned to U.S. trade remedy laws.

The Obama administration did successfully challenge a number of Chinese subsidies to support its wind power producers in a World Trade Organization case initiated by the United Steelworkers union. (Additional reporting by Doug Palmer; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/19/usa-china-solar-idUSN1E79I0UH20111019

That I don't know

all I know is the bid is not far from from 1/2 a penny as I type this. I remember when .03 was the rock solid bottom.

egads

a boat of shares on the .0075 offer

This has to be discounted dilution shares.

The long silence from management must mean things are not going well landing paying jobs, and salaries need paying...

This screen shot would make any long puke

Market for solar credits dips across Mercer region

Published: Sunday, October 16, 2011, 7:00 AM
Erin Duffy/The Times By Erin Duffy/The Times
http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2011/10/market_for_solar_credits_down.html


The new rooftop solar panel system at Grace Cathedral Fellowship Ministried church on Southard St. in Trenton, N.J. Wednesday, April 8, 2009. The church estimates that the solar system will supply 3/4 of their needs and be paid off in 6 years.

From farmland and fields to the roofs of schools, churches and big corporations, solar panels seem to be cropping up everywhere.

But the boom of the last two years comes with a price — a recent drop in demand and value for solar energy credits.

The market for solar credits promised a whole new source of revenue for solar users and contributed to decisions to invest in solar, but the market value of these credits has plummeted.

“Overall New Jersey has a very strong growth rate for solar and it goes out for 15 years,” said Michael Flett, president of energy brokerage and exchange firm Flett Exchange. “It’s just in the short term too many people put solar in too quickly.”

Solar Renewable Energy Credits, known as SRECs, were fetching prices as high as $680 one year ago. In August, prices fell to a low of $151, though they bounced back to $220 per credit late last week.

Bolstered by state and federal incentives for renewable energy projects, there are now 10,000 solar installations across the state providing close to 400 megawatts of power.

In Mercer County, few have been able to resist jumping on the solar bandwagon.

Crystalline panels have shown up on light poles, warehouses, parking lots and on the roofs of churches including Grace Cathedral Fellowship Ministries in Ewing and Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton.

In the past, the Lawrence school district has sold credits from its 5,300 rooftop panels for as much as $660 a pop, for a total of $1 million in one year.

But even as officials and environmentalists extol the virtues of clean, sustainable solar energy, falling SREC prices could pose a problem.

“We’re in a crash,” Lyle Rawlings of the Mid-Atlantic Solar Energy Industry Association said at a state hearing on the solar energy market last month. “If a market crash is allowed, all of the people who invested in good faith are feeling a lot of pain.”

For every 1,000 kilowatt hours that solar panels produce, one SREC is received. One-thousand kilowatt hours equals about two-thirds of the monthly electricity needs of the average New Jersey household.

Those SREC certificates are then sold on the open market, usually to energy providers.
The sale of SRECs usually provides extra revenue to residents, schools, municipalities — any organization that installs solar panels. The money is also used to pay down the cost of installing the costly solar panels.

In the Robbinsville school district, a solar project that would have included roof repairs has been scrapped due to the deflating solar market. An energy provider was set to install thousands of panels on the roofs of district schools and to repair the roofs of Sharon Elementary School and Pond Road Middle School at no cost to the school system. But the developer backed out as the market for SRECs slowed, and the school will now have to pay for the repairs itself, including at least $419,000 for the Sharon School roof, according to published reports.

“Our project did fall apart and we were impacted by the market,” said Robbinsville Superintendent Steven Mayer.

Others involved with solar projects are confident the market will stabilize in coming months.

Phillip Miller is executive director at the Mercer County Improvement Authority, which is financing $29 million for a 43-acre solar site at Mercer County Community College’s West Windsor campus. The 10-megawatt facility should produce up to 70 percent of the college’s energy needs.

Declining prices for SRECs shouldn’t hurt the MCIA or the college, Miller said. The energy provider, SunLight General Capital and Power Partners, will pay the MCIA back through the sale of SRECs and electricity.

And while the market may be down temporarily, the college’s solar farm isn’t set to be completed until 2012, and the developer is signed on for a 15-year power-purchase agreement.

Miller said some projects around the state may not go online, and that will allow the market to adjust. “The project we’re looking at won’t be finished ’til 2012, which will be a whole new energy year anyway,” he added.

The West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District has been waiting for state approval to hold a referendum on a $6.4 million bond issue to install solar panels on seven school roofs. With $7.5 million in federal Clean Renewable Energy Bonds on the line, the school district is still waiting for the state to sign off on the referendum.

In the meantime, the district did receive $576,000 in rebates recently for a previous solar project involving arrays on two high school roofs.

“That’s very nice and kind of takes the edge off the conversation of these SRECs running at $200 plus when last year they were running at $650,” said Larry Shanok, the district’s assistant superintendent for finance.

The state Board of Public Utilities last month held a meeting on the state of the solar market, and Flett, the energy broker with Flett Exchange, said help stabilizing energy credit prices could come from the board or the state Legislature.

Several ideas were floated at the meeting. Officials from the Solar Alliance, a solar trade group, for example, wanted longer-term contracts for credits that could give financiers greater confidence to invest.

The state’s own renewable energy plan sets certain benchmarks in place for the next 15 years, giving the market plenty of time to smooth out, some analysts say.

there is a 1.7M share discrepancy on the CEO's shares held so one of them is wrong. I can only hope the cnbc one is really old info. If Ezra is going back to Barry Honig for cash shareholders will be skewered again imo

Barry Honig is back in town

shareholder rape is whats in store for us longs

http://tinyurl.com/44ele54

Looks like the company is being run into the ground

Huge volume and a lower pps can only mean one thing - share selling by the company to keep those juicy steaks coming. I for one would not preform a Heimlich if any company officer began choking.

(Reuters) - What a difference a year makes.

By Matt Daily

Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:30pm EDT


In late 2010, solar panel makers were sold out, Germany was gobbling up record numbers of the clean energy systems, and new markets were steadily growing.

Now, the erosion of subsidies in Germany and Italy, the world's two biggest markets, and rising production of the panels that turn sunlight into electricity has left the industry awash in a glut of equipment and driven panel prices down by some 35 percent this year.

That is good news for consumers and distributors who buy the solar modules, but has left manufacturers reeling as their profit margins shrink and their share prices plummet to multi-year lows.

Some companies have gone bankrupt, including Solyndra, whose demise after receiving $535 million in government loans triggered a scandal in Washington that has many politicians questioning whether the federal government should continue supporting the industry.

That black eye for the industry and the bleak market conditions for panel makers will be key topics at the Solar Power International convention, the solar business' biggest gathering in the United States, which is set to begin on Monday in Dallas.

More than 1,200 companies are expect to be on hand to exhibit their wares, each fighting for a share of the market in an industry that is growing increasingly competitive.

"You can walk around SPI and a bunch of the companies that are there this year won't be there next year," said Rob Stone, analyst with Cowen & Co.

Solar analysts have been quick to point out the young industry is now weeding out the weaker companies, and that prices for solar power are quickly approaching parity with electricity generated by fossil fuels, which is crucial for reducing its need for government subsidies.

That in turn is helping spur its growth in the United States, where installations could double this year to more the 1.5 gigawatts.

SHARE COLLAPSE

Still, the damage to profit margins and stock prices has been severe.

First Solar, the industry's lowest cost manufacturer, has seen its shares tumble 57 percent so far this year. They touched their lowest level in more than four years last week.

Shares in its U.S. competitor SunPower Corp, in which oil giant Total SA bought a majority stake earlier this year, have fallen more than 30 percent.

For the China-based manufacturers, the pain has also been acute.

Suntech Power Holdings and Trina Solar shares have dropped 70 percent this year, Yingli Green Energy more than 60 percent, and JA Solar Holdings nearly 73 percent.

But no country's solar producers have been as hard hit by free-falling prices as Germany's, by far the world's largest consumer of solar power.

Q-Cells, once the world's largest maker of solar cells, is now struggling to meet refinancing needs and took steps earlier this month that may delay its convertible bond that is due in February 2012.

Solon and Conergy have both been forced into restructurings, and last week developer Phoenix Solar issued a profit warning.

Some critics say the German industry relied on lavish subsidies for too long and were caught by surprise when the German government started to slash supports to force the industry to become more cost efficient.

But it was largely Italy's move to pare back its subsidies that dampened much of the demand during the early months of 2011, analysts said, and led to sharp increases in module inventories at many manufacturers.

In an effort to generate cash and reduce their inventories, panel makers began aggressively selling the excess supplies in May, June and July, driving panel prices sharply lower.

"They didn't have the credit to cover the working capital," said Theodore O'Neill, analyst with Wunderlich Securities in New York.

"If you didn't know it was an inventory flush you'd say the sky is falling."

The decline in panel prices has not yet spurred much new demand, according to Cowen's Stone, and real consumption growth may be several months away.

"It may well take till the second quarter next year," he said.

Still, the sell-off in solar stocks appeared to have fully reflected the weak environment, with most companies' shares trading below their tangible book value, Stone said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/16/us-solar-spi-idUSTRE79F1Q620111016?feedType=RSS&feedName=GCA-GreenBusiness&rpc=43

any links to read anything about...

"...regulations being placed on penny stocks under .10 ..."

wish I knew brother.

All longs are feeling the heat in a big way irregardless of what solar stock they are invested in.

It must be because Obama wants solar to create lots of new clean energy jobs -but- wall street wants Obama gone. Solution: short solar stocks into bankruptcy

just look at these charts #msg-67779593

I wonder who bought the 2M, it better NOT be dumb money, lol



Best volume by far in the last 6 months!
(volume before price?)

A/D line tells of many believers that their investment will pay off.



No 8k (yet?) telling us where the el-cheapo shares on the offer are coming from.
Hoping Ezra is sending his staunch longs bargain shares before lift off!

Occupy Wall Street Says What It Wants

Not even Thomas Jefferson--in all his genius--ever thought of this: A declaration issued by New York City protest movement Occupy Wall Street lists its objectives and complaints. Then, at the end, it appends an asterisk.

This connects to a disclaimer, written in italics: "These grievances are not all-inclusive."

In its declaration, the three-week-old protest group comes out four-square against foreclosures, executive bonuses, workplace discrimination, politicians beholden to lobbyists, monopoly agriculture, and the sale of personal privacy data. It decries everything from colonialism to "faulty bookkeeping."

Of several similar protest movements--Occupy Boston, Occupy Los Angeles, and others now gaining steam around the U.S.--New York's is the first to issue so specific a manifesto.

"I think initially the movement started as just an airing of grievances by people frustrated by the economy and by the lack of government responsiveness to inequality," says Columbia University political science professor Dorian Warren. "But now you see those frustrations starting to congeal into a more formal list of goals and demands, a more specific articulation."

He expects to see such a more formal list issued later this week, perhaps by Wednesday.

Warren compares Occupy Wall St., at this stage of its life, to the nascent Tea Party, when protesters were seeking a vehicle through which to express frustration with the Obama administration.

What's different here? "The Tea Party seemed to be a movement of older Americans, more conservative, whiter," he says. OWS protesters "are younger, more diverse." They've got a sense of humor and they play better music. Some protesters Monday dressed as zombies so that financial workers could "see us reflecting the metaphor of their actions," according to OWS spokesman Patrick Bruner.

"I was down there yesterday," says Warren, en route to making his second visit to lower Manhattan to observe the goings-on today, "and what surprised me was how festive the atmosphere was. Nobody would describe a Tea Party meeting as festive."

He added: "There's no question, though, that they're angry and frustrated."

Just how frustrated became apparent Sunday, when hundreds of protesters poured onto the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge, stopping traffic. Some protesters were detained temporarily by police, whom the protesters have accused of using too-aggressive tactics, including pepper spray.

Warren says another difference from the Tea Party is the media coverage Occupy Wall St. has been getting: Coverage outside New York has been limited. "What the Tea Party had going for them," he says, "is that they got coverage immediately, and by a national network—Fox. That gave them legitimacy."

Further, the Tea Party had an electoral agenda from the get-go. "It's an open question whether this," says Warren, referring to OWS, "will be channeled into mainstream politics."

There are almost as many grievances as there are protesters. "We're tired, we're mad, and we're standing up," protester Hero Vincent today told ABC News. He complains that the movement is "degraded" by the news media for not having a limited and well thought out set of goals. "Our constitution took a year to make," he says. " We've been here for three weeks, and we're supposed to have an agenda? That makes no sense."

Professor Yochai Benkler, co-director of Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, calls Occupy Wall Street still very much a movement in the making. "One of the beautiful things about it," he says, "is that it is a movement defining itself as it 'becomes.'"

If there is a single, clear theme, it's this: Occupy Wall Street says it represents the interests of 99 percent of the American people, against the 1 percent it says controls 50 percent of the wealth.

Gunner Scott, a spokesman for sister movement Occupy Boston, says of his group, "We are in solidarity. We are fed up with how our country is being run. We want fundamental and lasting change. We are the 99 percent not being represented by government, and our needs are not being met. We want to engage other citizens on how we might reform business and government." He looks forward to a nation where "every person has an equal voice and equal access."

Scott says news organizations have been wrong to describe the movement as being made up of hippies and peace activists. "That's not representative of all of us involved. We have students and young people, and the unemployed. But we also have families and the self-employed, who can make their own hours. It's broader than anarchists and hippies."

Warren and Benkler view as significant the role played by social media in the movement's formation and evolution.

It's not that social networking technology has made it possible, they stress. Rather, it's that OWS' members bring to its structure and governance behaviors learned on the web. OWS adherents, says Benkler, are people "comfortable with decentralized collaboration" and with organizations more flat than hierarchical. They naturally seek consensus.

Says Warren: "Think Facebook or twitter: These protesters have adopted that same decentralized structure. There's no one leader. It's not top-down. It's much more democratic, much more 'open-source.'"

Maybe Matt can confront the DTC at this pubic meeting

Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2011 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it will host a public roundtable next month to discuss the unique regulatory issues surrounding the execution, clearance, and settlement of microcap securities.

The roundtable is being sponsored by the SEC’s Microcap Fraud Working Group, a joint initiative of the Division of Enforcement and Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations. The Working Group is the Commission’s primary resource for issues relating to market participants and trading practices concerning securities primarily quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB) or OTC Quote (previously Pink Sheets).

The event will take place on October 17 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the SEC’s Washington D.C. headquarters. It will feature in-depth discussions of key regulatory issues including Anti-Money Laundering monitoring, compliance challenges, and potential changes to the regulatory framework. Panelists will include representatives from The Deposit Trust Company, broker-dealers, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and others.

The roundtable is part of an ongoing SEC effort to focus on the particular challenges facing issuers and regulated entities within the changing business and regulatory climates. The purpose of the roundtable is to enable Commission staff to gather ideas and request input for regulatory measures surrounding the execution, clearance and settlement of low-priced securities.

The event is open to the public with seating available on a first-come, first-served basis. The roundtable also will be webcast live on the SEC website and archived for later viewing. For more information about the roundtable, contact the Division of Enforcement at 202-551-6607.


http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2011/2011-186.htm

Sector Snap: Solar companies rise on Obama support

Shares of solar panel makers rally after months of declines following Obama support for sector
ap


The Associated Press, On Thursday October 6, 2011, 3:19 pm EDT

NEW YORK (AP) -- After months of sharp declines, shares of solar panel manufacturers jumped sharply Thursday after President Obama reiterated his support for solar energy.

Shares of First Solar Inc., SunPower Corp., Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd., and Trina Solar Ltd. all rose 6 percent or more in afternoon trading.

President Obama said in White House news conference that the federal government should continue to give loan guarantees to help clean energy companies compete even if the program is risky.

Obama was fighting back against Republican criticism of the program after a solar panel maker called Solyndra collapsed, even though it received a $528 million loan guarantee.

Solyndra is one of three U.S.-based solar companies to seek bankruptcy protection in the last two months. The profits of solar panel makers -- and their shares -- have been crushed in recent months as prices of solar panels have fallen sharply.

Solar panel prices have been falling for years, but a recent glut of panels has led to an especially sharp drop. The glut was caused when countries in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, cut their subsidies for solar power. Germany is by far the world's largest market for solar power.

The falling prices have cut into the profits of panel makers, even though the lower prices have also led to broader adoption of solar, especially in the U.S. Solar installations in the U.S. doubled last year and are expected to double again this year.

Shares of First Solar Inc. traded above $125 in mid-July before falling to a low of $55.68 on Tuesday. SunPower shares fell from $22.74 to $6.60 over the same period.

Obama's comments on Thursday gave investors hope that government support for solar would continue and lead to the installation of more solar systems. The federal government offers installers a subsidy equal to 30 percent of the cost of a solar system that can be taken either as a cash grant or as a tax credit. The provision that allows installers to take the subsidy as a cash grant expires at the end of this year.

up 40% today!

That will attract some eyeballs. btw, I need like 460% to get whole, lol.

If the today's spread of .004 continues this stock could very well move like a low floater. imo, only the small dollar position longs have cut and run, hence the pps slide.
The rest of the longs I believe are rock solid. There has been anemic $ volume in CSKH, and there is no sign of big dollar selling.

This gun here is cocked and loaded.

I added yesterday at .01, I couldn't resist. I only wish I had some of my higher buys to do over again so I could add mightily below at or below a penny to really lower my average in a significant way.

I think Monday (not a trading holiday) could be interesting. We're due for something and the whole sector is trying to reverse trend.

here ya go...

This was yesterday's close...


CSKH is down 75% just like all the other solars over the last 6 months

solars are up 3 days in a row from all time lows

c'mon Mr. Green its time to join in!

sickening ain't it.

shorts will take profits now and help the longs send the sector higher.

looks like the shorters at citi are getting nervous...

Yingli Green (NYSE:YGE) downgraded to Sell from Hold at Citigroup.

solars coming off the bottom today

Anti-Wall Street protests take off thanks to a Canadian idea
rod

VANCOUVER— From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Oct. 04, 2011 10:37PM EDT
60 comments

Several thousand kilometres from the heart of the growing anti-Wall Street protests in New York, Kalle Lasn says he is astounded that an idea he and a few others hatched in Vancouver is now expanding across North America and beyond.

“Of course, we had some hopes and dreams, but we had no idea it would turn into a movement in the United States, then into Canada, and become global,” said Mr. Lasn, co-editor of the influential, Vancouver-based, anti-consumer publication Adbusters, which first called for a people’s occupation of Wall Street.


Activists throughout Canada set to show solidarity with Wall Street protesters
More than 700 Wall Street protesters arrested on Brooklyn Bridge

A demonstrator from the Occupy Wall Street campaign stands with a dollar taped over his mouth as he stands in Zucotti Park near the financial district of New York September 30, 2011.
Photos
Occupy Wall Street demonstrations move into third week

“The way this has bubbled to the top is quite amazing. We really didn’t expect it.”

After the weekend arrest of more than 700 demonstrators on the Brooklyn Bridge, American unions are joining in. The next big protest is scheduled Thursday in Washington and strategy sessions are being called in Canadian cities to plan similar actions.

The escalating wave of protests stems from a routine brainstorming session of five or six people this past summer at Adbusters.

“We just felt America was ripe for a Tahrir moment of its own,” said Mr. Lasn, referring to the throngs who congregated in Cairo’s central square earlier this year to bring down Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.

The group conceived a centre spread in the magazine’s July edition, depicting a ballerina delicately balancing on the iconic Wall Street bull, with the words: “What is our one demand?....#OCCUPYWALLSTREET, September 17, Bring tent.”

The slogan quickly captivated Adbusters’ 90,000-strong network of self-styled “culture jammers.” Word began to spread.

“We just did this thing and watched as it started to grow and grow,” Mr. Lasn marvelled. “Then some groups in New York got behind it. The buzz grew, and suddenly it took off, and now it’s a real movement.”

Mr. Lasn believes that the swelling anti-corporate protests, which have yet to focus on specific demands, have the potential to revive the long-dormant left wing in the United States.

“I was scared the loonie left would take over again, and the whole thing would fizzle into nothing. But real, substantial people are turning up, people with a bit of backbone,” said Mr. Lasn, who describes himself as being old enough to remember the sixties.

“They are starting to have the same sort of chutzpah that the Tea Party has. That’s what the political left sorely needs.”

Protests have been slower to come to Canada, Mr. Lasn said, because economic conditions are much worse in the United States.

“They are losing their jobs, their houses. Nearly 40 per cent of young people between 19 and 25 can’t find work. There is a lot of anger out there. I think that the moment was absolutely ripe for this to happen.”

In the United States, protests are springing up from Florida to Boston to Los Angeles.

“This could have legs to it,” observed Moneyball author Michael Lewis, who has also written about Wall Street and global economic turmoil.

Activists in Toronto and Vancouver are holding meetings Friday and Saturday to plan protest occupations starting Oct. 15.

Young people, with their Internet and social media savvy, are in the forefront of Occupy Wall Street, Mr. Lasn said.

“Egypt and Tahrir Square proved that a few smart people on the Internet can call for something and, if it captures the public’s imagination, it can get tens of thousands of people out on the streets.”

Adbusters, meanwhile, is relishing its role in what Mr. Lasn calls one of the most hopeful moments in the magazine’s 20-year history.

“This was all cooked up right here at Adbusters. It’s a Canadian adventure,” he said.

In the past, the publication has galvanized action around campaigns such as Buy Nothing Day and Digital Detox Week. “But this takes the cake,” Mr. Lasn said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/anti-wall-street-protests-take-off-thanks-to-a-canadian-idea/article2191364/

sounds good to me

On September 28, 2011, the Board of Directors of Clear Skies Solar, Inc.’s (the “Company”) elected Ezra Green, Chairman and CEO of the Company, to the added positions of President and COO of the Company, which positions were formerly held by Thomas Oliveri. Mr. Oliveri retired from the Company effective on September 27, 2011. Mr. Green will maintain his current base annual salary and benefits.

Now Mr. Green has all the reigns, CHARGE!!!!

.0063 printing is going to attract many bottom fishers. Solid News by Mr. Green will kick start a massive PUSH.

I say bring it on!

withering on the vine here.

I can't believe management is willing to let the pps go down the rat hole on nill volume - ON A DAILY BASIS.

200,000 pennies is only $2,000 (lunch money)

Q3 is history now. So management knows whats in the bag.

Who's selling at .011 ?????

The long-term trend is toward more volatility. Judging by the number of times in a year the S&P 500 swung 2 percent or more in a single day, markets are much more likely to have large leaps up or dives down, according to S&P's equity research group. Swings of 2 percent occurred an average of five times a year from 1950 to 1999. It's already happened 20 times this year, with three months left to go.


---

Analysts say it's also the chief reason Americans are fleeing the stock market as if it's 2008 all over again. Retail investors pulled $36 billion out of U.S. stock funds in August, according to preliminary data from the Investment Company Institute. That's second only to the $47 billion withdrawn from U.S. stock funds at the height of the financial crisis in October 2008.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Wild-market-ride-is-driving-apf-2513012628.html

Only $1 billion in new loans to green energy companies?

No more subsidies for nuclear power
by Joseph Romm

10 May 2008 6:22 PM

PorkBuster

Once your power source has reached, say, 10 percent of the electricity grid, let alone 20 percent, it should be time to cut the cord to government funding.

Yet after more than $70 billion dollars in direct subsidies, billions more in insurance subsidies, plus another $13 billion available through the energy policy act of 2005, Sen. McCain and others still feel that climate legislation must not merely create a price for carbon dioxide that would advantage all carbon-free sources of energy, but that we must also throw billions more dollars of pork at the industry. At some point, infatuation has turned to obsession.

I am not against building new nuclear power plants; far from it. But when is enough enough, in terms of massive taxpayer support for a mature industry? We had such an incredible clamor for welfare reform in the 1990s, to change "government's social welfare policy with aims at reducing recipient dependence on the government." If we reduced the poor's dependence on government, why not the super-duper rich?

Total subsidies to nuclear approaching $100 billion

Let's start with a historical subsidies. This 1999 Congressional research service report lists the subsidies for all major sources of energy from 1948 through 1998. This October 2007 Government Accountability Office report [PDF] examined federal electricity-related subsidies from 2002 to 2007.

Bottom line: From 1948 to today, nuclear energy R&D exceeded $70 billion, whereas R& D for renewables was about $10 billion. (For the record, from 2002 to 2007, fossil fuels received almost $14 billion in electricity-related tax subsides, whereas renewables received under $3 billion, but that's fodder for another post.)

But that's not all. The Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act, which caps the liability for claims arising from nuclear incidents, reduces the insurance that nukes need to buy and puts taxpayers on the hook to cover all claims in excess of the cap. The benefit of this indirect subsidy has been estimated at between $237 million and $3.5 billion a year -- suggesting it has been worth many billions of dollars to the industry. Indeed, it could be argued that the value is considerably larger than that, since the industry might not have existed at all without it:

At the time of the Act's passing, it was considered necessary as an incentive for the private production of nuclear power -- this was because investors were unwilling to accept the then-unquantified risks of nuclear energy without some limitation on their liability.

OK, that was fine for a new, almost completely unknown technology in 1957. But now through 2025? If investors aren't willing to accept the risks of nuclear energy now, without taxpayers liable for any major catastrophe, maybe that tells you something about the technology.

And then we have the staggering $13 billion in subsides and tax breaks in the Nuclear Giveaway Bill Energy Policy Act of 2005 (not even counting the value of the Price-Anderson act extension). It includes "Unlimited taxpayer-backed loan guarantees for up to 80 percent of the cost of a project"! The complete list of subsidies is worth seeing in its entirety.

And yet for all this pork, Sen. McCain put into his 2007 climate bill another $3.7 billion in federal subsidies for new nukes, even though that bill creates a cap-and-trade system that would establish a price for carbon dioxide, which benefits nuclear power and all low-carbon energy sources.

Enough is enough

Yet last fall, when Grist asked McCain, "What's your position on subsidies for green technologies like wind and solar?" he said:

I'm not one who believes that we need to subsidize things. The wind industry is doing fine, the solar industry is doing fine. In the '70s, we gave too many subsidies and too much help, and we had substandard products sold to the American people, which then made them disenchanted with solar for a long time.

So true, however...

The king of beers is no longer American

$52 billion dollars was all Anheuser-Busch needed to sell its soul. This Bud's for EU.

One bright spot though is that America is are still at the top of food chain, powering foreign economies as we spend our borrowed money.