Replies to post #441 on Solar Stocks

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Solars hit a brick wall today

It just amazing how they all move in unision. Is this the final shake out before the power move higher?



ot: wind power

good news sold...

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Solar Manufacturing: Not So Sunny
By KATE GALBRAITH

January 14, 2009, 1:39 PM

Solar manufacturers, who once couldn’t keep up with demand, are now searching for customers. (Photo: David Maxwell for The New York Times)

The recession has cast clouds over once fast-growing solar manufacturers.

California-based OptiSolar is laying off close to half of its workers at what it had hoped would become a huge solar-panel plant near Sacramento.

Austin-based HelioVolt, a thin-film solar manufacturer, is also cutting jobs, as reportedly is SunEdison.

Evergreen Solar, a solar manufacturer, announced that it would close down a pilot plant in Massachusetts as a cash-saving measure; it will incur a $25 million charge for writing off equipment. Most employees will be transferred to another Massachusetts factory, which is expanding.

“From the manufacturers’ standpoint, it’s pretty serious,” said Bill Stewart, president of SolarCraft, a California installer, in a conversation with Green Inc. Until last summer there were still shortages of solar modules (which in turn were due to shortages of the polysilicon material they are made from), so installers like SolarCraft sometimes had to badger manufacturers to make sure they would get enough panels.

Now, said Mr. Stewart, the situation is reversed, and manufacturers are calling installers to say, “‘Hey, do you need any product this month? Can I sell you a bit more?’”


Mr. Stewart said that European solar markets have also slowed, which has helped loosen up supply.

SolarCraft, he says, still has “a lot of buyers right now,” but the number would be even higher if there were more innovative loan programs. “A lot of people don’t want to mess with their home-equity lines of credit,” he said.

USA Today reports that the price of rooftop solar systems is down by 8 to 10 percent since October, and could fall further.

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/solar-manufacturing-not-so-sunny/?em

http://www.solarcraft.com/

[mlkrborn]

great work thnx pal!

[bUrRpPPP!]

Just wanted to say thanks for a great thread..I stop by here all the time for great info and links in the IBOX.....g/l

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Will the sun soon power our homes?

Meltdown 101: How soon will solar power become an affordable source of electricity?

Chris Kahn, AP Energy Writer
Thursday February 19, 2009, 4:46 pm EST

After 30 years of trying to squeeze electricity from sunlight, the solar energy industry is finally gaining some traction in its effort to compete with fossil fuels.


Here are some questions and answers about solar energy as a source of electricity.

Q: Is solar energy getting close to being able to compete with fossil fuels?

A: It's definitely moving in that direction.

Rooftop solar panels already are producing cheaper electricity than traditional power plants during the day in California and Hawaii. And industry analysts say that as early as next year utilities could build solar power plants able to compete with traditional coal-fired or natural gas power plants.

Q: Has something changed recently to give solar a leg up?

A: There have been vast improvements in technology as equipment and installation costs have plummeted, thanks in part to manufacturing innovations and a huge plunge in polysilicon prices.

Q: Polysilicon?

A: That's a form of silicon that's used to make some of the solar cells that gather sunlight to turn it into electricity.

Polysilicon prices have dropped about 30 percent in the past two months as makers of semiconductors -- which also use the material -- curbed production during the recession, said Jesse Pichel, an analyst with Piper Jaffray in New York.

Q: President Barack Obama has talked a lot about encouraging the production of alternative energy. Does anything in the stimulus plan he signed this week encourage the use of solar power?

A: Yes, the stimulus was packed with incentives for solar, including U.S. Treasury grants that will allow consumers to recoup 30 percent of the cost of installing solar equipment.

Robert Margolis, a senior analyst with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, said the new federal incentives will allow people in many U.S. cities to immediately lower the cost of home electricity by installing solar panels on their rooftops.

Q: Are there other reasons for the accelerating shift to solar power?

A: States and power companies have begun offering incentives to get people to use renewable forms of energy.

Yet consumers are not only being pulled toward solar power, they're also being pushed away from fossil fuels. Americans' electric bills rose for the sixth straight year in 2008, making the increasingly affordable option of solar power more attractive.

The cost to outfit a home with solar panels varies widely, but prices continue to plunge. Ilan Caplan, 34, of Denver, paid $22,000 last year for a rooftop system, but with incentives, it cost him $7,000. Caplan figures he produces about 90 percent of the energy he uses at home.

Q: Rooftop panels are one thing, but are there prospects for large-scale solar power plants?

A: Southern California Edison is building a massive 250 megawatt solar plant, big enough to power more than 160,000 homes. This month, New Jersey's largest utility said it would install 200,000 solar panels throughout its service area in an ambitious $773 million program. Public Service Electric & Gas Co. supplies power to residents over an area of about 2,600 square miles.

Q: So, are we getting close to the day when solar power becomes the country's predominant source of electricity?

A: That day's still a long, long way off. Being able to compete in cost is one thing; becoming a significant player on the American electrical grid is quite another.

For starters, the coal and natural gas plants that fulfill much of the country's energy needs aren't going to close down simply because solar energy is getting cheaper. Also, it will take years for manufacturers to build enough solar panels to make a sizable contribution to the electricity supply.

"The industry could grow 30 to 40 percent a year for the next 20 years and it still won't amount to a hill of beans in terms of energy production," said Pichel. "If solar is going to be anything other than a cottage industry, the world needs 100 more polysilicon plants and multi-gigawatts more of production."

The ability of solar energy to compete also depends on the price of natural gas, the fuel used in many power plants. At current natural gas prices, it's impossible to produce solar electricity at a competitive cost; if gas prices triple, as they did last summer, solar would be close.

Experts say solar panels will eventually be able to compete even with cheap natural gas as they continue to get more efficient.

Q: Let's say utilities start incorporating solar power -- what's the first change I'll see as an electricity consumer?

A: It's more a case of what you won't see: those crazy price swings on utility bills.

Some utilities already shift between natural gas and coal to meet demand for electricity, using whichever is cheaper. As commercial-scale solar plants come on line, utilities will have yet another option.

If utilities were using solar power widely last summer, you can bet many would have made the shift as natural gas futures soared over $14 per 1,000 cubic feet in July. (By comparison, natural gas costs $5 per 1,000 cubic feet now.)

Q: Where is solar power going to grow the fastest?

A: Of course, a lot of sun -- and high prices for power from other sources -- play a role. Hawaii and California already have the capacity to provide competitive prices for solar power and Texas could be next, according to Tom Werner, CEO of SunPower Corp. in San Jose, Calif.

But where solar will catch on also depends on investment levels by state and local governments. After California, can you guess which state relies on solar power the most? That's right, sunny New Jersey, a state that has bought into solar big-time.

Q: Other than the issue of getting solar power stations built -- and the challenge of competing with traditional power plants -- what other obstacles stand in the way of solar?

A: Solar researchers say they've found many ways to get more electricity out of the sun. The challenge is figuring out how to mass-produce that technology.

"The problems you get at that scale are totally different than what you see in the lab," 1366 Technologies co-founder Ely Sachs said.

Other solar power growing pains may show up in consumers' wallets. In some communities, electricity bills could rise as power companies invest in solar projects.

In New Jersey, for example, Public Service Electric & Gas plans to charge an extra 10 cents a month for a year, and up to 35 cents a month within five years, for its ambitious solar plans.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Meltdown-101-Will-the-sun-apf-14417578.html

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WWAT is now ENSL

Tuesday January 27, 2009 15:11:00 EST
FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan 27, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

Entech Solar (OTC BB: WWAT.OB), a leader in concentrating solar energy systems, today announced that the Company's ticker symbol will change to ENSL.OB from WWAT.OB, effective January 28, 2009. This follows the Company's recent name change, reflecting its commitment to commercializing Entech's proprietary ThermaVolt(TM) system. Entech Solar will continue to trade on the over-the-counter (OTC) Bulletin Board under the new ticker.


Entech Solar, Inc. http://www.entechsolar.com
designs, manufactures, and markets solar energy systems worldwide. It offers ThermaVolt, a system that produces electricity and thermal energy based on concentrating photovoltaic and thermal technology; SolarVolt, a system, which produces electricity; and Skylight, a tubular skylight that redirects natural light from various parts of the sky to the work area. The company also provides engineering and project management services to solar projects. Its products are used in various applications in municipal water and utility facilities, food processing plants, correctional facilities, amusement parks and ski resorts, schools and universities, hospitals, and hotels. The company, formerly known as WorldWater & Solar Technologies Corp., was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.

from yahoo...
OS: 235M
Rev's: 34M
Cash: 10M
Debt: 0
book: .27

http://sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?CIK=0000811271&action=getcompany



02-20-2009 8-k...
Peter L. Corsell has been appointed by The Quercus Trust to the Board
of Directors of Entech Solar, Inc. (the "Company") pursuant to rights available
to The Quercus Trust as the holder of the Company's Series D Convertible
Preferred Stock.

-----

02-23-2009 SC 13D/A...

David Gelbaum, Co-Trustee of The Quercus Trust
The Quercus Trust holds 102,784,561

David Gelbaum elected as the Chairman of the Board on January
12, 2009

As of the date of this Amendment No. 11, the Reporting Persons
beneficially own 102,784,561 shares of Common Stock. This is represents a sum of
(i) 48,405,551 shares of Common Stock (ii) 3,892,857 shares of Series D
Convertible Preferred Stock (the "Series D Preferred"), which are currently
convertible into 38,928,570 shares of Common Stock, and (iii) currently
exercisable warrants to purchase up to 5,050,440 shares of Common Stock. The
foregoing represents a beneficial ownership of 35.5% of the shares of Common
Stock (based on the number of shares of Common Stock outstanding as reported on
the Issuer's 10-Q filed on November 10, 2008 and after giving effect to the
conversion of the Series D Preferred and exercise of the warrants).


----------

David Gelbaum (Quercus Trust) made big bucks as a hedgie. Every stock penny stock he's loaded into is in the toilet, another Cornell ???

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Solar stocks becoming penny stocks in this market

Most solars are now in the single digits, many below $5, OUCH

Where is the bottom? Worst February in memory.





lots of possible downside...

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Trina Solar Posts Loss
03/03/09 - 11:25 AM EST

by Chuck Marvin

Trina Solar(TSL) said Tuesday that it posted a net loss in the fourth quarter due to falling prices for solar modules.

Trina had a net loss of $673,000, or 3 cents per American depositary share, compared with net profit of $17.5 million, or 69 cents per ADS a year ago.

However, Trina's results beat the average analyst estimate of a net loss of 4 cents per share.

The company generated net revenue of $216.3 million in the fourth quarter, up 113% from the same period a year ago.

The company, which is based in Changzhou, China, said that the solar market has been hurt by the global economic crisis.

"The value of and loyalty towards our brand helped us to exceed our quarterly revenue guidance, despite sectorwide declines in the average sales price of modules," said Jifan Gao, CEO of Trina Solar. "The launch of our European warehouse operations added to our fourth quarter sales by improving our delivery reponse time and services to customers," Gao said.

Although Trina was able to beat analyst estimates for the quarter, the firm's performance was a far cry from the large earnings gain that First Solar(FSLR) posted last week.

Trina Solar's ADRs on the New York Stock Exchange were recently moving 6.2% higher to $6.33 a share.
http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/10467377/1/trina-solar-posts-loss.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

[Recognizer]

anything undervalued and ready to pop,been playin the fins,getting back in oil and looking at solar again?

[duelittle2]

Great Post...Solar Sector IS the Future...Looks like some sideliners coming back in!

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Trina Solar to Split Stock
By Eric Rosenbaum 01/06/10 - 09:01 AM EST Loading Comments...

Stock quotes in this article: TSL , YGE , STP , JASO

CHANGZHOU, China (TheStreet) -- Trina Solar (TSL Quote)is changing the ratio of its ordinary shares relative to American depository receipts (ADRs), in a move that could spur more trading in the Chinese solar stock. Trina is bringing the ratio of ordinary to ADR shares down from 100-to-1 to 50-to-1.

In essence, Trina is splitting its stock. The move is not surprising, given that Trina has among the lowest share-counts in the solar industry. As with any stock split, the overall value to shareholders won't change -- they will just own two shares at $30 each as opposed to one share at $60. Trina closed at $59.14 on Tuesday and was up marginally in the pre-market Wednesday. Analyst Adam Krop of Ardour Capital Management said that while he didn't think Trina necessarily needed to make this move -- Trina had arguably the best third quarter earnings in the solar sector -- it makes sense from the perspective of attempting to increase the number of shares in the open market and potentially spur retail investors to trade Trina Solar shares. "It will make Trina more liquid, and allow investors to trade Trina at a lower price, which could make the stock more attractive to some retail investors," Krop explained.

Shares of some of the cheaper Chinese solar players, such as JA Solar(JASO Quote), have traded strongly in recent months. JA Solar, for example, has 167 million shares outstanding. Trina's closest competitors in the Chinese market, Yingli Green Energy Holdings(YGE Quote) and Suntech Power(STP Quote), have 155 million shares and 127 million shares outstanding, respectively.
-- Written by Eric Rosenbaum in New York

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Solar Losers: Stocks Tank in Market Selloff

By Eric Rosenbaum 01/12/10 - 08:42 PM EST

Stock quotes in this article: TSL , YGE , CSIQ , STP , FSLR , SPWRA , JASO

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Big oil and raw metals far from the world of clean energy and silicon had a big, negative effect on solar stocks on Tuesday. The market selloff triggered by disappointing earnings from Chevron(CVX Quote) -- as well as a freefall in Alcoa(AA Quote) shares after its earnings -- sent the market into its first tailspin of the new year. The Nasdaq was down more than 1.3%, while the MAC Global Solar Index was down 3.5%, matching losses in many of the individual solar players on Tuesday.

Solar-specific news that should have served as a positive on Tuesday was no match for the market jitters on a worse-than-expected start to the earnings season. In fact, the best performers in the solar sector on Tuesday were still daily decliners, and not even marginal decliners. The high-flying Chinese solar players were hit the most and the hardest.

Trina Solar(TSL Quote) and Suntech Power Holdings(STP Quote) were both down approximately 3%, for the best performance among the Chinese solar companies on Tuesday in the solar sector.

What's more, the declines from this group of Chinese solar outperformers came on the heels of positive news for Trina and Suntech.

Suntech announced on Tuesday morning at a Needham & Co. growth conference that its solar panels were basically sold out through the second quarter of 2010.
Trina got a huge price-target increase from Collins Stewart, from $56 to $75, on Monday

Yingli Green Energy Holdings(YGE Quote) was the only of the three big Chinese solar players with a new negative rating: on Monday Ardour Capital Management downgraded Yingli on fears that its polysilicon plant ramp up would cost it $9 million per quarter through 2010 and into 2011.

Yingli was down 4.5% on Tuesday, in the middle of the pack of Chinese solar decliners.

Collins Stewart also raised its price target on Canadian Solar(CSIQ Quote) from $26 to $40 on Monday. Canadian Solar's reward: it was down the most of any Chinese solar stock on Tuesday, with a loss of 6.5%. Both Yingli and Canadian Solar saw elevated levels of trading on Tuesday.

JA Solar(JASO Quote) was also at the Needham growth conference talking up the solar industry and providing a rosy demand scenario of 9 gigawatts.

Didn't help on Tuesday: JA Solar was down 5.5%. So much for management speaking engagements at industry conferences as a share booster.

LDK Solar(LDK Quote) and China Sunergy(CSUN Quote) were right behind the biggest solar dogs on Tuesday with losses of approximately 5%.

Solarfun Power Holdings(SOLF Quote) received a spike on Monday after announcing some module sales in China -- albeit only of 12.65 megawatts (MW), and with a 2.65 MW portion still not actually under definitive contract.

On Tuesday, Solarfun was down more than 3.5%, negatively besting yesterday's surge, and seeing almost twice its average daily trading volume -- 4.7 million shares traded versus 2.5 million.

The U.S. solar companies were holding up better on Tuesday than a good number of their Chinese solar peers, a marked reversal from the start to the year last week, when the Chinese solar companies raced ahead of First Solar(FSLR Quote) and SunPower(SPWRA Quote).

Though the investor unrest and doubts about the pace of global economic recovery did not result in a flight to solar safety and into U.S. solar stocks. SunPower was down 2.1% on Tuesday, and First Solar was down 3.8%, declining at a level just a little worse than the best of the Chinese solar players on Tuesday, Trina and Suntech.

More generally, Chinese stocks trading as American Depository Receipts (ADRs) were facing a difficult market day on Tuesday. China's central bank moved on Tuesday to tighten credit, raising the amount of money banks are required to keep on reserve. The People's Bank of China also raised interest rates on one-year bills for the first time since August in a bid to fight inflation.

The Associated Press reported that 70 of the 80 Chinese stocks -- including some big solar names -- on the Bank of New York-Mellon ADR index were in decline on Tuesday.

Solar research bear Gordon Johnson, analyst at Hapoalim Securities, is predicting, not surprisingly, that some of the high-flying Chinese solar players are headed for implosion this year. Johnson is betting that JA Solar, for example, is headed back down to the range of $3.

Is Tuesday's selloff a harbinger of worse to come for solar companies, or will the string of upgrades and Suntech's bullish sales report make Tuesday's selloff the exception to the rule in the first half of 2010? Collins Stewart said in its upgrade yesterday that it sees Trina's earnings being "front-loaded" in 2010. The only thing loaded on Tuesday, however, was the market trigger to sell solar stocks.

-- Reported by Eric Rosenbaum in New York.

all but FSLR holding above the 50dma!





Buy the dips imo, still lots of $$$ on the sidelines.
No guts, no glory!

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yesterdays losers are todays winners!

The bears had their fun yesterday but they're being stampeded today, lol

Big board solar stocks...
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cq?d=v1&s=AKNS+ASTI+CSIQ+CSUN+CTDC+EMKR+ENER+ESLR+DSTI+FSLR+HOKU+JASO+LDK+RSOL+QTWW+SOL+SOLF+SOLR+SPIR+SPWRA+STP+STRI+TSL+WFR+YGE

OTC-BB and pink solar stocks...
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cq?d=v1&s=APSOQ.pk+AWSL.pk+BSRC.ob+CHPO.pk+CNUV.ob+CSKH.ob+CSOL.ob+ENSL.ob+ESRG.pk+HGUE.ob+ICPR.ob+NENE.ob+PTOS.OB+SESI.ob+SLTZ.ob+SOEN.ob+SSLR.ob+TSSP.pk+XSNX.ob

[IPO$]

Any thoughts? The solar industry is starting to recover, but it has not exited the financial crises yet. Industry experts predict the solar industry will be fully recovered by Q3, 2010.

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JA Solar reported a 66% spike in fourth-quarter revenue and a swing to profitability for the period. The company earned $22.3 million, or 14 cents per American Depository share, in Q4, topping the EPS consensus by 3 cents. Shipments were up by 278.7% year over year and 30.5% sequentially -- crushing the record set in Q3. The company now expects 2010 shipments to exceed 900MW, compared to prior guidance in the range of 750MW to 800MW


Float: 108.79M
% Held by Insiders1: 28.87%
% Held by Institutions1: 38.80%
Shares Short (as of 29-Jan-10)3: 10.69M

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Solar On Fire In California

May 6, 2010 - 1:55 pm


Jonathan Fahey writes about energy, technology and science for Forbes



This is the way it was supposed to work: As solar panel prices fell, solar power would become more affordable, and people everywhere would cover their roofs with glittering panels. Solar still has a long way to go to reach the promised land of "grid parity" -- electricity prices equal to what you can get from the grid -- but so far this year solar is hot in the nation's biggest market, California.

Even though state subsidies in California are falling, there were applications for nearly as many megawatts of commercial, residential and government solar power in California in the first four months of 2010 than there were in all of 2009, according to research by Mark Bachman of Auriga USA. (Big, utility-sized projects were not included in this analysis.)

The big reason, according to Bachman: Cheap panel prices offered by Asian manufacturers like Suntech Power, Sharp, Trina Solar, Yingli Green Energy and Kyocera Solar. Applications to California's subsidy program, the California Solar Initiative, added up to 252 megawatts through April, compared with 87 megawatts over the same period last year and 265 megawatts for all of 2009. That's a rate of applications that Bachman calls "staggering."

Bachman looks at applications for installations because they predict both the volume and mix of future panel sales and installations. "The data shows what's in highest demand, and the application trend is totally going to the Japanese and Chinese modules," he says. About one in five applications get canceled before installation; it takes an average of 188 days between application and installation.

A big boom in manufacturing capacity in Asia, the economic slowdown, cheaper raw materials and less generous subsidy programs in Europe have combined to push panel prices down sharply over the past 18 months. New Chinese entrants like Trina and Yingli have burst on to the California scene in the past several months, going from almost nowhere to third and fifth highest market share so far this year. Kyocera Solar, whose panels installers say privately are proving to be better at producing power than competitors, is also growing fast -- applications are are already 165% higher than for all of last year. More established players Suntech and Sharp hold the top two market share spots.

Almost all of this growth is coming out of the hide of U.S.-based SunPower, historically California's biggest player. SunPower makes the world's most efficient solar panels, and the company's designs are sleek. SunPower hoped that these features would allow it to continue to charge higher prices and hold on to market share. While applications for SunPower panels is strong this year, up 88% over the same period last year, it is lagging the overall market, which is growing at a clip of 190%.

http://blogs.forbes.com/energysource/2010/05/06/solar-on-fire-in-california/

[mlkrborn]

up-down;/OT
Hi!
CTX in homebuilders board; cant get a quote and cant draw a chart .. Can you fix it please?
GL
tia
mlkr

[potentiallydangerous]

akns is now west- also look at sopw it is holding up better