Silicon vs. thin film solar cells

Today there are two main types of photovoltaic systems available. The mainstay of the industry and historic method of producing solar panels is with silicon. In short, silicon crystals in the panels harness the sun’s energy and electrons flow through the panels into a usable current of electricity. More can be read on the basics of solar energy at:

http://jc-solarhomes.com/photovolt.htm

 Silicon panels have traditionally been costly to produce and wasteful of material. Ingots of silicon are typically sawn into wafers and then made into panels. Solar grade silicon can reach the price of $500 per kilogram. Silicon panels are generally more efficient than their thin film counterparts and the physical panel itself is relatively simple to dispose of once its working life is through. 

Thin film solar panels are made from a micro thin layer of a semiconducting material such as cadmium telluride or other material combinations. These thin film cells can be made from a wide variety and combinations of materials, all of which depend on the manufacturer. Cost efficiency is an advantage of thin film solar arrays, but silicon is still generally more efficient for energy conversion at this time. First Solar of Arizona is one company successfully manufacturing the cheaper thin film panels, one disadvantage of their product is its toxicity and the eventual problem of disposal at the end of service life.

There is a high amount of competition in the solar energy business. Many companies are looking to produce panels as cheaply as possible and many of these small startups seem to come and go rather quickly. Over the next few years, there will be a greater separation between these two technologies. If the thin film technology becomes more efficient, a decline in the traditional silicon panels will be imminent.

 

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=solar-power-lightens-up-with-thin-film-cells

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-does-solar-power-work

Natural gas refueling at home: The Phill System

The existing infrastructure for gasoline and diesel fuels is immense. There is talk in the news recently of using natural gas as a transportation fuel, but there are few existing stations in the United States at this point in time. Currently the company FuelMaker (which is being acquired by Clean Energy Fuels Corp., CLNE) manufacturers a product called Phill, a home compressed natural gas fueling station. The system installs outdoors or in a garage and can refuel a natural gas powered vehicle over the course of a few hours or ideally, overnight. The system is being utilized by many fleet operations, such as city buses and other government vehicles. Some states like California already have a fairly widespread use of CNG. This home refueling station might be a big step in switching more vehicles to run on natural gas. 

Compressed natural gas may be utilized more as a transportation fuel in the future due to its low cost and domestic availability. The only commercially available consumer CNG vehicle is the Honda Civic GX. There are also many companies which install aftermarket CNG conversions for vehicles currently running on gasoline or diesel. The Phill System may make purchasing a natural gas vehicle more appealing to consumers, especially those who can use the car for commuting. Natural gas vehicles get about the same mileage per gallon equivalent as gasoline vehicles, but natural gas burns much cleaner and costs less. The Phill System is a big step in converting the nation’s vehicles to run on a domestic fuel source.

 

Read more about the Phill system, the Honda Civic GX, and CLNE at…

 

http://www.myphill.com/

http://automobiles.honda.com/civic-gx/

http://www.cleanenergyfuels.com/main.html

Evergreen Solar Q3 earnings announcement

Evergreen Solar announced third quarter earnings after trading hours October 16^th,and the share price tumbled the next day due to the small margin of revenue. The company lost 18 cents per share, far more than the expected loss of around 10 cents per share. The loss per share increased from the previous quarter, where the company lost 8 cents per share. The loss is attributed to the start up costs of the new Devens manufacturing facility. The net loss for the company is expected to continue into the fourth quarter of this year, with the company’s estimate between 8 and 10 cents per share.

Evergreen solar is still waiting days of profitability. Thus far, the company has yet to report positive earnings per share. According to the conference call the company has $309 million cash on hand, which is enough to complete the Devens manufacturing facility and produce 135 megawatts of product in 2009. Currently, the company is selling just over half of its product in the United States, with the rest of the sales coming from operations with EverQ in Europe and a small amount of business in Asia.

Although the company is currently in a period of expansion and negative earnings, good news did come out of this quarter’s conference call. The company announced two new long-term sales contracts, which will already put the 160mW Devens facility at full capacity beyond 2010. The contracts are with Mainstream Energy Corporation and AEE Solar Corp. These two contracts will put the total long-term sales backlog at over 1 gigawatt. This is a good sign for the company, as customers aren’t afraid of the current credit crunch and have faith in the quality of Evergreen Solar’s product line.

 

The conference call and other announcements can be found here:

 

http://www.evergreensolar.com/app/en/investors/

Energy Stock Horizon

The last two weeks have been a roller coaster ride for the stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had its largest ever up and down point swings one week apart. With the large amount of recent volatility, alternative energy stocks have been heavily beaten down in price. Oil futures have also dipped below $80/ barrel this week, causing even further sell off energy related stocks.
With the recent decline in stock prices across the board, one may wonder if this is the time to own a risky alternative energy stock. Many of these companies rely on debt to finance their operations and long term loans will be harder to obtain in the near future. Even if banks and other financial institutions have the money on hand to loan out, they will be much more selective in their loan processes.
When considering the above mentioned risk factors, one may think stocks (including alternative energy companies) have been beaten down to very low price levels. Many of these have solid financials and good management, but have been pulled down along with the market. Although many of these seem like a steal, it may be awhile before the markets recover. Alternative energy requires a high amount of technology and many investors may flock to seemingly safer blue chip companies during times of financial hardship. Time horizon is an important factor to consider when investing in any stock, especially alternative energy. Recovery of the market is very unpredictable. Emotion can be difficult to contain, but one must keep a long term perspective when investing these days. 

Evergreen Solar stock drops over Lehman Brother bankruptcy

Evergreen Solar (ESLR, the company) closed Friday September 12th at a price of $6.30. Solar stocks were hit heavily on the drop of oil prices. To make matters worse for ESLR, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy over the weekend. Lehman was the underwriter for $373 million of convertible senior notes payable in 2013. There are currently 164 million shares outstanding, so a substantial amount is held at Lehman. ESLR has no obligation to Lehman Brothers, but may suffer the consequences of not having the loaned shares returned. This transaction involved a lending agreement with Lehman where ESLR loaned 30.9 million outstanding shares to Lehman with the expected return of the shares by 2013, when the notes are due. The cash from the senior notes is currently held by ESLR, but the company now has the right to have the loaned shares returned or have the current market value paid back by Lehman. This will obviously be difficult due to the bankruptcy filings.
According to the conference call, Lehman Brothers was notified to return the shares to Evergreen Solar. There are many possible outcomes to this situation, but if Lehman Brothers falls into bankruptcy protection, Evergreen Solar would have to deal with creditors in order to get their shares returned. The shares are still considered on loan until 2013 and not part of outstanding shares on the market, thus will not be displayed on the accounting statements until that time.
As poor market conditions were pulling ESLR down to what seemed like a good buy point last week, something unforeseen happened driving the stock prices down to below $4. It is very hard to state at this point whether or not the stock is at a buy point. The Lehman bankruptcy could significantly hurt the company financially, but there may be claims to Lehman assets as the company enters bankruptcy. The course of these events will unfold over the next few months, providing more insight on the financial condition of Evergreen Solar.