My Top 5 Reasons Cleantech Is Alive and Well

Here's My Top 5 reasons cleantech is alive and well:

 
1.) China. China finally seems poised to address its outrageous pollution problem. The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection estimates it will cost China upwards of $800 billion to clean its air. $800 billion. Cleaning up Beijing alone could cost as much as $163 billion. And its water doesn't fair much better: seventy percent of the groundwater in the north China plain is unfit for human contact. Not just consumption, contact. And only half the water sources for Chinese cities are safe to drink. The Chinese government says it will commit 1.7 trillion yuan ($277 billion) to combat air pollution over the next five years, which is a start, but until then we'll keep seeing scenes like the "LED sunrise" on Tiananmen Square that went viral.

LED sunrise on Tiananmen Square. Credit: ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images

2.) Google bought Nest for $3.2 billion. This is a cleantech success story. I don't care whether Nest Labs ever considered itself a cleantech company since its founding in 2011. If cleantech is the set of new technologies and business model innovations that help use natural resources more efficiently, effectively, and responsibly, then Nest, which took a ubiquitous, yet poorly designed technology (the thermostat), made it smart and fun to save energy in homes because its cool and easy to use. That is cleantech.

Nest thermostat. Photo: Nest Labs

3.) Solar, distributed solar. I know, solar was a dirty word for some investors, including the American tax payer, who got burned by solar 1.0. But there's a new game in town now that solar panels are cheap and financing distributed solar has become easier thanks to innovators like SolarCity, Sungevity, and the like. Installations are on the rise and investment is pouring back in.

4.) Tesla Model S. Motor Trend Car of the Year. 2014 Detroit News Readers' Choice Award as North American International Auto Show Most Innovative Vehicle. Yes, D-E-T-R-O-I-T News. Tesla  announced earlier this year it had sold 6,900 of its Model S in the fourth quarter -- twenty-five percent higher than the previous quarter and roughly twenty percent more than expected. And they recently announced the Model 3 (formerly, Model E, but it turns out Ford owned that), which will sell for about $40,000, Tesla is in line for growth and more growth. That's for a company with $27.25b market cap.

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Tesla Model S. Photo: SEA

5.) Many more innovations are needed. Energy efficiency, recycling, water use, as well as purity and scarcity, and food are all ripe for cleantech disruptions, innovations, and solutions. There are still plenty of opportunities out there for entrepreneurs, investors, and others to tackle resource scarcity, use, and management. We've only just begun to address the issues our planet faces. And the need for innovative financing to enable these solutions is also going to grow. Call it what you will, "cleantech" is going to be a growth engine for many years to come.


Cleantech isn't dead. It hasn't crashed, it hasn't lost its value, and it has only grown more important and necessary. Cleantech is alive and well.


(NOTE: This is a slight, updated edit of an earlier post I wrote on The Green Skeptic.)

Mosaic Shows Crowdfunding Cleantech May Get Its Time in the Sun

"The road is paved with ideas -- good, bad, and disastrous," I wrote in a blog post about how I nearly started The Disaster Channel, a 24-hour cable network devoted entirely to disasters and their impacts.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Timing is worth a lot more.

When I set out to develop my green energy web marketplace, variously called "Seat 28B" and "VerdeInvesting," among other names, it was the fall of 2008. 

That's right the fall of 2008. Should be a capital letter on that Fall, maybe even all caps, FALL of 2008.

What seemed like a great idea that summer -- actually, it was an evolving idea that I and my friend Lucinda had as far back as 2006, only then it was for conservation projects -- turned into a really good idea whose time had most decidedly not come by that Fall.

The collapse of the financial markets and downwardly spiraling oil prices conspired to make timing for that idea um, to say the least, problematic. 

Add to that mix the SEC challenges raised early on by the venerable Steve Goodman at Morgan Lewis, and we had a kind of perfect storm against our retail alternative energy investing business. 

As I've said before, we were too small to fail, hadn't taken anyone's money and hadn't hired anyone, so it was fairly easy to downshift and turn it into a consulting practice. 

I still believe the idea of a web marketplace for cleantech is a good one. And this week proved it, as Mosaic, which I've written about here back when they were SolarMosaic, fully funded four projects in its first day of activity.

Mosaic connects ordinary investors to high quality solar projects. Their mission is "to open up clean energy investing and fundamentally change the way energy is financed."

The economy is still bad and some seasoned investors are starting to move away from cleantech. So what's different and why is Mosaic working?

The JOBS Act. 

In 2012, President Obama signed into law the JOBS Act, which stands for Jumpstart Our Business Startups, effectively making it easier for public solicitation by private companies raising money.

The SEC still has to file some rules on the matter, which it didn't do within the 270 days they were given to do so by Congress. Mosaic does not have an official approval from the SEC, but worked with state officials to open their platform to residents of California and New York.

Mosaic had a private launch in early 2011. Since that time it has raised $1.1 million from 400 or so investors and funded 11 projects. This week, they raised $300,000 in 24 hours to fund 4 projects. 

Crowdfunding for cleantech may yet get its time in the sun.

Solyndra Saga: The Kaiser Connection

In my post Wednesday on Solyndra's bankruptcy I alluded to the fact that some people are questioning why the government took such a strong interest in backing this particular company with an expensive, risky technology. 

I wrote then that I'd leave it to the pundits.  However, Thursday morning's reported FBI raid of the company begs comment.

According to the Washington Post, "a House investigation is looking at possible White House involvement in Solyndra winning the loan, and said it has found evidence that White House officials were monitoring Solyndra’s status in the application process.  The Department of Energy has asserted that it chose Solyndra through a competitive, non-political process."

One of Solyndra's leading investors, The George Kaiser Family Foundation, is the foundation of Obama fundraiser and supporter George Kaiser. 

As reported by Bloomberg this afternoon, the foundation, "a charitable organization based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and backed by donations from Kaiser, holds about 35.7 percent of Solyndra, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission."

"A Government Accountability Office audit last year found Solyndra was among a handful of companies that the agency awarded billions in loan guarantees before completing required reviews of their applications," reports the Post.

Bruce Krasting of iStockAnalyst explored some of the Kaiser connection in a post Wednesday afternoon.

At the very least, this situation doesn't pass the sniff test.  What more will the FBI shine a light on?  And what impact will this have on other cleantech companies?  Stay tuned.

First Solar Slumps; Can it Rise Again?

Photo courtesy First Solar

It was hard to be optimistic listening to First Solar's earnings call yesterday. 

CEO Rob Gillette sounded like a guy putting on a brave face when he talked about how the company continued to execute despite a "challenging environment" and that things would improve in the latter half of 2011. 

"It was a challenging quarter for all the PV industry," he said, trying to sound optimistic about First Solar's positioning for the second half.

Profits were $61 million compared to $159 million in the same quarter last year.  Earnings per fully diluted share were down to $0.70 compared to $1.84 a year ago; for some perspective, analysts were expecting First Solar to meet $0.92 per share. 

Sales slid during the same period: $533 million from $588 million.  First Solar actually sold more panels than the same period last year, but weak pricing due to an oversupply of solar panels and uncertainty in the German and Italian markets hit them hard.

First Solar also cut its FY11 EPS guidance from $9.25-$9.75 to $9.00-$9.50. 

Whew.

The company is hoping to rebound in the second half of the year on the backs of big projects such as Aqua Caliente, a 290 MW solar farm in Arizona, and the 230 MW Antelope Solar Valley Ranch project in California.  Project development will continue to help First Solar hedge lagging sales of its solar panels, according to Gillette, and may help bolster demand for its panels. 

Management is also hoping that sales in India will help lift First Solar in the second half of the year.  Gillette reported they are also looking at expanding in China, the Middle East, Australia and Japan.

Still, there's a long shadow over First Solar, as with other solar companies right now.  Tough to see how the future looks bright.

In trading today, shares of FSLR dipped below $100 for the first time since November 2008.


(Disclosure: I hold a long position in FSLR. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)
 

First Solar: Great Expectations in the Sun

I've lived through the best of times and the worst of times with First Solar (FSLR).

Readers of The Green Skeptic know I've been long FSLR for so long. I'm not giving up now.

The company reports 4th quarter and full-year earnings after the close of the market today.

Perhaps in anticipation, there was a run-up on the stock this morning, although not as dramatic as last week's spike.

Over the past 52 weeks, according to SmarTrend Market Surveillance, shares of First Solar have traded between a low of $98.71 and a high of $175.45. It was trading this afternoon at $164.53, 67 percent above the low.

In the last five trading sessions, the 50-day MA has climbed 0.77 percent while the 200-day MA has risen 0.28 percent, according to SmarTrend.

Consensus seems to be the company will report a 6.7 percent rise in earnings-per-share (EPS) versus the same quarter a year ago.

"Regardless of its earnings report, most investors will be looking at its outlook for the coming quarter and full-year," as 24/7WallSt.com reported this morning. "Thomson Reuters' most recent expectation calls for full-year EPS of $9.10 on revenue of $3.76 billion, substantially more than 2010 full-year expectations for EPS of $7.63 on revenue of $2.6 billion."

FSLR beat the last two quarterly estimates, but still got hammered in after hours trading and continued on a downward spiral the following day. (I'm beginning to think my buddy Howard Lindzon puts the kabosh on the stock when he mentions it -- sort of like the Cramer effect.)

Here's why I still believe in FSLR:

FSLR recently expanded its cadmium telluride supply agreement with 5NPlus to 60 percent by 2013.

They recently signed an agreement to build the largest solar plant in China.

Despite subsidy cuts in Germany and a moratorium on new plants in Italy, FSLR is expanding in the US and Canada, along with the Indian and Chinese markets. The company has recently completed a new German manufacturing facility in Frankfurt.

While FSLR slipped behind China's Suntech (STP) as the world's leading solar manufacturer in 2010, they are still the first company to ship more than a gigawatt of capacity two years in a row -- and they plan to increase global production to 2.7 GW by 2012.

First Solar is still the leader in providing the lowest-cost-per-kilowatt modules, a position they don't seem to be giving up any time soon.

Oh, and there's that little factor of oil breaching the $100/barrel mark.

Looking forward to the earnings report and call.


(Disclosure: I hold a long position in FSLR. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)

First Solar to Build Solar Module Factory in Ho Chi Minh City

First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR), a United States-based solar panels manufacturing company, has reportedly received investment license to build a solar modules producing factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The company has plans to invest around $1 billion in the project.

The proposed plant will be constructed in Dong Nam Industrial Zone located in Cu Chi District and will manufacture thin film solar modules. In the first phase of the project the plant will have four operating lines to manufacture a maximum of 238 MW every year. The company has plans to increase the production capacity by four-fold in the next phase.

According to Tymen DeJong, First Solar’s Deputy Director In-charge for its global productions, the first phase of the construction work will commence in January 2011 and the plant is anticipated to become functional from the middle of 2011.

Source: First Solar

(Disclosure: I hold a long position in FSLR. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.

Why We Deserve to Lose (The Race for a New Green Economy)

No offenths, as the 4-year-old son of a friend used to say before offering a critical observation, but we suck.

And we deserve to lose the race for a new green economy to China. Why?  Because we have systematically destroyed our opportunity to lead through bad decisions and illusion, sold ourselves to China, and blanketed ourselves with cheap and toxic products bought from China.

(No wonder the Chinese are laughing at us in this political ad Joshua Brown wrote about on The ReformedBroker.com this weekend. Of course, as Josh pointed out in his post, China needs us as much as we need them.)

Then there is this disturbing item from an editorial in the New York Times this morning: "Until a little over three weeks ago, the Interior Department had approved more than 73,000 oil and gas leases since 2005, but only one offshore wind energy project and not a single solar project."

Don't get me wrong, I support domestic oil and gas development -- both offshore and on land -- as long as it is conducted using the highest environmental standards and safeguards.

But why has it so long to approve a project like Cape Wind off the coast of Massachusetts while oil and gas leasing has accelerated?

Two things have been happening since 2005 when Congress directed the US Department of the Interior "to approve enough wind, solar and other projects on public land to produce 10,000 megawatts by 2015 — enough to heat, cool and light five million homes."

The first is the so-called "Haliburton loophole," which exempted natural gas drilling companies from the Clean Water Act after the companies raised a "frackas" over having to disclose chemicals used in their fracking process.  They claimed it would endanger their proprietary formulas.

A September 2009 report issued by the General Accountability Office (GAO) found that 28 percent of drilling permits issued from 2006 to 2008 (about 6,100 applications) were expedited by the Bureau of Land Management through this categorical exclusion.

Here's an interesting list of exemptions the oil and gas industry currently enjoys from the Federal government compiled by the Environmental Working Group.  Any one of these can help accelerate the approval process.

By comparison, the Cape Wind project was subject to meeting a plethora of state and federal agency standards and required almost nine years to get a final permit.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, to his credit, has approved six large-scale solar power projects on public lands in California and Nevada, and has moved to close the loophole and reform the process for reviewing all projects on lands under Federal management.

But renewables also continue to be subjected to unclear and inconsistent signals in terms of subsidies and tax credits, which makes investors and project developers wary of going too deep.

As the Times editorial asserts, "When the production tax credit expired at the end of 2003, development of newly installed wind capacity fell from 1,687 megawatts to less than 400 the following year."

Meanwhile, as an Environmental Law Institute study last year illustrated, fossil fuel development benefited from approximately $72 billion in subsidies and tax credits over a seven-year period (2002-2008), while subsidies for renewable fuels totaled only $29 billion overt the same period.

This kind of unlevel playing field and unfair advantage is just another reason why we have already lost the race with China and others on renewables. 

In fact, we better stop thinking about it as a race at all and begin thinking about how best to cooperate with our competitors before we are left out of this new economic opportunity altogether.

Solar Generation 2010 Report Calls for "Grid Parity" by 2015

Solar PV to have its day in the sun?

Solar photovoltaic (PV) could account for 5 percent of global power demand by 2020, and up to 9 percent by 2030, according to a global solar photovoltaic outlook by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) and Greenpeace International.

"The 'Solar Generation 2010' report also projects investments in solar photovoltaic (PV) to double from 35 billion euros today to 70 billion euros in 2015. At the same time, costs for PV systems are expected to almost halve (-40 percent).

"As a result, PV systems will be able to compete with current electricity costs for households in most industrialized countries. This so-called 'grid parity' will change the PV market significantly."

You can download the report's executive summary here: Solar Generation 2010 (PDF)

Related articles

• Guest Post: Stewart on why solar's future is bright (cleanbreak.ca)
• U.S. Solar Market to Grow 42% Annually (environmentalleader.com)
• US Solar Poised for $100bn Growth Surge (eon.businesswire.com)
• 'Investment in solar power projects to double by 2015′ (topinews.com)
• Solar Energy Can Generate 4.2% of U.S. Power Supplies by 2020 (businessweek.com)

Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 10/08/10

John & Yoko @ Cafe LaFortuna 1980 (watercolor by SEA)

It's Friday again.  A busy week for me, which has prevented me from posting as much as I'd like.  (But busy is good.)

Here are the links that caught The Green Skeptic's eye this week:

A Great piece on VC Vinod Khosla in The New York Times on using capitalism to help the poor via investments like SKS Microfinance.

Speaking of VCs, one of our favorite VC-bloggers, Fred Wilson, "On takers and makers."  


Two other fav VC-bloggers, Roger Ehrenberg and Alex Taussig, had their posts repubbed in Fortune Magazine's web site: The Rebirth of VC (Really!) and Will Solar in 2011 Look Like Automobiles in 1911?


Speaking of solar, after much debate and a failed attempt to interest President Obama in Jimmy Carter's old solar panels, the White House says it will Go Solar.

More solar fun this week as SunPower initiated corporate carbon footprint reporting: CO2 Footprint.  A first for a solar power company.


One of our favorite cleantech journalists, Yoni Cohen, writes about "The Lessons Veteran [Cleantech] Investors Have Learned."


And finally, from Business Insider, 19 Facts About The Deindustrialization Of America That Will Make You Weep.

Okay, okay, that's just too depressing to stop there, so on a lighter note, here is poet Paul Muldoon's interview in The Economist: Q&A with Paul Muldoon

Have a great weekend. And happy birthday John Lennon (who would have been 70 tomorrow).

Cleantech Innovation in China: Insights from the Cleantech Group

The Future of Cleantech?

Today, "Made in China" increasingly means innovated in China.  So argues a new report from the Cleantech Group released last week, "Cleantech Innovation in China."

China became the world’s largest cleantech investor in 2009, pumping government investment into R&D and innovation incubators, but also attracting an increasing share of private money, as well as interest from the global marketplace.

According to the report, however, Chinese companies still need to rely on multinational corporations from other countries with a tradition of cleantech innovation and expansion for their success. This points to some potential opportunity for US-based companies.

In addition, China faces increased resource constraints and troublesome levels of pollution, water shortages, population growth, and other environmental risks that may hinder its progress over the long-term.

"Energy insecurity and poor environmental quality are threats," according to the report. "And addressing them is not only a key factor in managing the risk of domestic discontent but also a prime opportunity to create local jobs and develop local expertise."

Key points of interest  to readers of The Green Skeptic:

• Patent filing in China grew 29.7% in 2009, bucking the unprecedented decline in global patent filings due to the global economic crisis. China is now 4th in the world in patent origin in six key clean technologies including wind, biomass, and cleaner coal.
• The Chinese government has increased R&D spending while decentralizing R&D institutions and encouraging partnerships with the private sector, preparing China to be especially competitive in the world market. 
• China is innovating beyond the solar sector. 70% of cleantech venture capital deals between 2006 and 2009 were outside of solar. Materials science, agriculture, water and wastewater, energy storage and energy efficiency have emerged as key areas of interest.
• For the first time, in 2009, China accounted for the largest share of money raised from cleantech IPOs (69%), well ahead of the US’s 26%.  By number of deals China also had the majority with 17 of the 32 global cleantech IPOs tracked in 2009. Of the current crop of Cleantech IPOs on the ChiNext exchange in 2010, many are from water and energy storage.

We agree with the authors of the report that "China’s level of cleantech innovation today should not be over-inflated," but neither should its potential be underestimated.

As the report suggests, "the question is no longer whether a China strategy should be adopted for cleantech innovation, but rather how it should be adopted."

Download a copy of the report summary here.

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• 10 Reasons Why China is the Cleantech Leader (solarfeeds.com)
• Why China has already overtaken the U.S. in cleantech (cleantechblog.com)
• Terry Cooke on China, Cleantech and US Readiness (thegreenskeptic.com)
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Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 08/06/10

An EV1 all-electric car by GM that escaped in 2005.

Digging in this week post-vacation.

After five months of intense work with some great clients, my consultancy, VerdeStrategy, finally has a couple of open slots for new projects and clients. Contact me here if your company can use some help with strategic communications, business planning or developing your investor presentations.


Now, after that shameless self-promotion message, on to the links.


A lot of Electric Vehicle love  this week:

First, how'd you like to travel from Alaska to Argentina in an Electric Sports Car? Greentech Media has a story about two entrepreneurs who did just that: Sports Car

Anna Clark from GreenBiz explains that consumer choice will be the ultimate driver when it comes to EVs in Selling Electric Cars Requires Plugged-In Drivers

CleanTechies blog notes that Fast Vehicle Charging Goes by Many Names (Just don't call it Al...)

And here's a video link to my appearance on FOX Business Network this week on $GM and the Chevy Volt: Green Skeptic on FOX

All that EV goodness aside, our StockTwits pal Gregor MacDonald reminds us that we're still Eating Gasoline in America

Is solar now cheaper than new nuclear? A new US study says it's true in North Carolina: Solar

Up next: Two Energy Efficiency Stories from Beantown (or thereabouts):

Always smart @cleantechvc on Energy Efficiency: Where angels will shine.

And congratulations are in order for Green Skeptic-favorite EnerNoc (ENOC) on a profitable quarter and almost 5GW under management: $ENOC

Have a great weekend everyone!


(Disclosure: I hold long positions in ENOC. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)

Can a Disruptive PV Technology Topple First Solar? (from GreentechSolar)

Eric Wesoff at Greentech Media raises some interesting questions for $FSLR investors and ponders whether there's a "new black swan improbable pyro-nano-quantum-thingamajig technology" waiting to displace thin-film PV:

As we watch First Solar lower their industry-leading costs from $0.81 per watt in Q1 to $0.76 per watt in Q2, we get a clearer picture of their cost trajectory. First Solar's roadmap sees their costs dropping another 20 percent to 30 percent by 2014. They also envision their efficiencies climbing to 14 percent from today's 11.1 percent. Is this the best that the solar industry can do?

The leading (and bankable) Chinese crystalline silicon manufacturers will continue to price their product exactly where it needs to be to win commercial and utility business.  And folks like SunPower, with their high efficiencies and high costs, will attempt to keep up. Other public companies without the benefit of very high efficiency, very low costs, or big balance sheets are going to be on the losing end of Shyam's Solar Shakeout.

So, why aren't there solar panels everywhere?

Read the full article here: Disruptive

(Disclosure: I hold long positions in FSLR. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)

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KVA & Portable Light's Sheila Kennedy on Clean Energy Solutions

Back in March at the Aspen Environment Forum, I facilitated a panel called Energy Equity: Clean Energy for All, in which we discussed exciting new alternative energy innovations with the potential to change the lives of the "bottom billion" of the world's poor.

One of our panelists, Sheila Kennedy of KVA Kennedy & Violich Architects and the Portable Light Project, shared her designs for textiles with flexible solar materials and solid state lighting that enables people to create energy harvesting bags, blankets, and clothing using local materials and traditional weaving and sewing techniques in an open source model.

Tonight, Sheila will share her latest developments on the show "Brink," on CBS Science Channel.

"At the Aspen Forum, our discussions revolved around what we can do right now to rethink the delivery model for clean energy so it can become more widespread, accessible and enjoyable as a part of everyday life," Sheila wrote to me recently. "It's my hope that our designs can set a new direction for 'ready out of the box' clean energy products and building components that can drive the green economy —- in the developing world and right here at home."

KVA's work with energy harvesting textiles is being featured on a special episode of Brink on "Sustainable Living" tonight at 10:30 PM EST: "Brink"

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First Solar exceeds earnings estimates, but is cautious about future

First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) beat Q209 earnings yesterday and the stock shot up in after hours trading cresting at around 190. But as the earnings conference call started and CEO Michael Ahearn and CFO Jens Meyerhoff spoke, the stock tumbled quickly.

What made folks nervous?

Cautious optimism? While Ahearn and Meyerhoff did not change guidance for the next quarter, they both spoke of challenges in balance of the year, which on the face of it was prudent and transparent. I like that about these guys; they are practical and forthcoming.

Yesterday's call, however, struck me as more dour than usual. And judging by the reactions, others seemed to agree.

The biggest concern moving forward appears to be the rather defensive position FSLR execs are taking in Germany, as polysilicon prices continue to fall making crystalline silicon (c-Si) module prices competitive with FSLR's cadmium telluride (CdTe) modules in Germany.

While this will affect their margins for some time to come, I'm still confident this company has real value, strong leadership, and a great product.

Analysts this morning have been all over the map, from CreditSuisse's downgrade to $135 (from $200) to Wedbush Morgan's upgrade price of $195 from $175. And it's been a bouncing ball all morning after opening at $155.

For me, I don't think the sun has set on First Solar just yet.

(Disclosure: I hold a long position in FSLR. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)

Vive la France: First Solar to build largest solar plant in France

EDF Energies Nouvelles (EDF EN) and First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR) today announced a venture to build France’s largest solar panel manufacturing plant. With an initial annual capacity of more than 100MWp, the plant will produce solar panels made with First Solar’s advanced, thin-film photovoltaic technology.

According to a press release today, First Solar will build and operate the plant in France, representing an expected investment of more than €90 million. The initial annualized capacity of the plant is expected to exceed 100MWp, according to FSLR, making it the largest manufacturing facility for solar panels in France.

EDF Energies Nouvelles has agreed to finance half of the capital expense and plant start-up costs and will benefit from the plant’s entire output for the first 10 years. First Solar and EDF EN intend to announce their decision on the site location within the next few months.

First Solar’s manufacturing site will also include a facility for recycling solar panels, France’s first such facility and Europe’s only solar panel recycling plant outside of Germany.

For more information see: First Solar

(Disclosure: Long FSLR)

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Greentech Media's 150 Solar Startups: The Sequel

Back in January of this year Greentech Media published a long list of VC funded and early-stage solar firms. They called it "150 Solar Startups" because the total number of firms was in that ballpark and it had a bit of a ring to it.

But, writes Eric Wesoff on the Greentech blog, "as we kept looking and as our readers continued to bring more firms to our attention the numbers climbed – first past 200 and settling in at a grand total of 219. Subtracting newly departed SV Solar and Optisolar leaves us with 217 solar firms hatched in the last few years."

(Note that their list is for privately held firms with a focus of VC-funded or pre-VC startups. No public firms or OTCBB firms.)

Still, some names to keep an eye on: 150 Solar Startups: The Sequel

Clean Tech: Biomimicry May Unlock the Power of Solar

"In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine."

Read the full story by Anne Trafton from MIT and watch Dan Nocera's video description: http://tinyurl.com/5uu53h

Click To Play

(Composed on BlackBerry; UPDATED with embedded video content.)

Clean Tech: The Economist Looks at the Future of Energy

The energy landscape is changing, says The Economist, but where is it heading?

This week's issue (21 June) has a special report looking at the options facing the world, including alternative sources and

The market for energy is huge. Estimated at US$6 trillion a year, it accounts for about a tenth of the world's economic output -- and by 2050, power consumption is likely to have doubled from today's levels. High fuel prices and worries over energy security and global warming mean that a technology boom based on alternative energy may soon be upon us.

Wind and solar both are approach cost parity with traditional sources, at least in terms of new development. Biofuels caught on and we were all heading to Abilene with them, until some folks pointed out the issues with corn- and other food-based sources. And even electric cars and nuclear power seem to be rising from the dead.

It's clear the future of energy must change if economic development and prosperity are to continue.

The Economist report looks at the full range of alternative energy options that may fuel the new green economy and asks the critical question, can they break our addiction to oil and coal?

Clean Tech: Clean Edge/Co-op America Report on Utility Solar in US

A new study by Clean Edge and Co-op America shows that the US could achieve 10 percent solar by 2025:

While the U.S. currently gets less than one tenth of one percent of its electricity from solar power, our research shows that solar offers the opportunity to provide a significant portion of the nation’s electricity supply for both distributed and centralized generation by 2025—up to ten percent from a combination of solar PV and CSP. As storage and smart grid technologies evolve, we see the potential for solar to provide an even larger percentage of U.S electricity needs.

Their analysis -- based upon proprietary Clean Edge data, company research, and expert interviews -- provides the following key findings:

1. Solar resources are ubiquitous.
2. Solar can provide utilities with a peak-power hedge.
3. Environment and carbon are becoming central drivers.
4. Solar power will soon reach price parity with conventional sources.
5. Utility participation is critical to solar success.
6. Smart grid deployment is imperative.
7. Distributed solar PV offers utilities unique advantages.
8. The solar industry needs to cooperate with utilities.
9. Standards must be implemented.
10. It’s not just PV, but also CSP (Concentrated Solar Power).
11. Utilities need to be able to integrate solar expenditures into their
rate base—and to be able to take a full life-cycle cost approach.
12. Utilities have a unique relationship with customers.

Download the report here: Clean Edge

Clean Tech: Simple Questions Require Simple Answers

Technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant Sramana Mitra asked some simple questions in a Forbes.com article last Friday:

"What would it take? What would it take for the U.S. to move to a 50% renewable energy economy by 2020? What would it take for India to become a 100% solar economy by 2050?

"The answer lies in aggressive innovation and entrepreneurship in all parts of the solar ecosystem coupled with resolute policy decisions. And please note that policy alone, without innovation and entrepreneurship, will not solve the problem.

"Take the United States. Building a 100- to 300-megawatt solar power plant costs $750 million to $1.5 billion. To really move the needle, hundreds and thousands of such plants need to pop up all over the country and funnel clean energy into power grids.

"The best outcome would be if technology obviates the need for solar subsidies. 'Eventually, it is a technology race,' says David Chen of Equilibrium Capital, a new sustainability fund and a long-term technology industry veteran. We've seen this for over 30 years in cycle after cycle, whether it is in integrated circuits or disk drives, LCDs or flat panels. Moore's Law, it is called. We will see it again in solar. But in the meantime, policy will need to intervene, and make it worthwhile for investors and entrepreneurs to play in the market.

"In India and China, a distributed power strategy would be ideal. But batteries, which store solar energy captured during the day and release it at night, are still too expensive to be used on a mass scale.

"Here's another question: What would it take to stimulate small businesses to build up solar farms and sell energy into utility grids? I suspect, again, both policy and entrepreneurship would need to go hand in hand."

Simple questions require simple answers.

But, thus far, the simple answers ellude us. What's required is, as Ms. Mitra suggests, for Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, and Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh to "sit down with entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors, and understand through candid exchanges what sort of policy is needed to unlock the enormous entrepreneurial energy that sits boiling amid the ocean of human potential."

These leaders and others would do well to heed Ms. Mitra's advice.