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SOLARPOWER

2 JULY|AUGUST12 energetica india

The solar industry is here to stay, but like all other mature industries, the global solar

sector is experiencing a rough path (bankruptcies) towards its goal of a sustainable

industry.

Shradha aSwani, EnErgEtica india

Solar Industry takes Note; Bankruptcies

prove to be a Speed Breaker

The green economy was supposed to

be planets salvation and also help Eu-ropean manuacturing industry gain

lost ground in the manuacturing sector

against low cost manuacturing economies.

But this is not proving to be easy with some

solar manuacturing companies closing

down recently.

Solar manuacturing recently has seen a

lot o blood bath due to various

reasons dropping solar mod-

ule prices, reduction in demand

due to decrease in Feed in Tar-

is and Chinese competitionand maybe some role being

played by the global nancial

crisis.

Some experts say that in

terms o technique it is pretty

easy to copy and make these

solar products; however with

labour as expensive as it is,

western economies are de-

nitely no comparison to emerg-

ing economies where both land

and labour is much cheaper.European economies are

still committed to green econ-

omy but not at the expense o

tax-payers resources.

Surprisingly bankruptcies

have aected not only solar

manuacturing but also solar

power project developers.

Energetica India visits some

bankruptcies announced re-

cently:

Q- Cells, Germany

The breakdown o Q-Cells al-

most crashed the German solar

market. The nances were low

and the company was going through a num-

ber o cost reduction techniques. Howevernone o it seemed to work out and Q-Cells

led an ocial request to start bankruptcy

proceedings in April 2012.

The company had won the 4th place

amongst solar manuacturers in the world in

2010 but couldnt make it to the top 10 in

2011.

Abound Solar, USA

Abound Solar was a manuacturer o thin-lm cadmium telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic

modules. The company had doubled the

solar installations in North America during

its launch but recently led a petition or

protection under the U.S bankruptcy code.

The company was expecting a set

back and had even stopped conventional

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SOLARPOWER

3energetica india JULY|AUGUST12

production to work on a new product,

but sadly a sink in the prices o silicon cellsgot into the way and ruined the plan. It

had spent around 68 million dollars ater

which the credits (rom Department o En-

ergy) had been called o in the month o

September 2011.

Evergreen Solar, USA

The Massachusetts based company (a so-

lar panel manuacturer) led a petition

or bankruptcy in 2011; with a debt o

approximately 485 million US dollars. In

act, the conditions orced the companyto auction various components, most o

which were bided by the investors o the

company itsel. As a matter o act, it is

known that these investors held about 70

% o the company.

Solyndra, USA

Solyndra is an USA based Solar panel man-

uacturer. On August 31, 2011 Solyndra

publically announced its plans to le or

bankruptcy under law. Apart or a huge

eect on the Silicon Valley, 1100 employ-ees were redundant, which had an enor-

mous impact on the overall scenario in the

Global solar market.

A board meeting held on August 30th

conrmed that no more cash would fow

into the company by the ederal sources

which led to the nal decision o ceasing

operations.

Spectrawatt, USA

Censuring the present market conditions

then, and some operational malunctions,Spectrawatt led a petition or bankruptcy

in September 2011. Moreover it was also

made public by the company that a lot o

issues with vendors regarding unds also

orced them to reach this decision. The

company, a solar panel manuacturer, wasonly 3 years old when it led or bank-

ruptcy.

Sovello, Germany

Sovello made silicon waers and turned

them into cells and then panels. It was

once a joint venture o Q-Cells, Evergreen

Solar and Renewable Energy Corp beore

being sold to Ventizz Capital Fund IV in

2010.

A degradation in the prices in the mar-

ket came about which quite unexpectedlyhappened beore the company could low-

er its costs o production. This contributed

to the downall; and the news o the ling

was quite into public by the second week

o May 2012. 1250 employees worked in

Sovello at that point o time.

SolarHybrid, Germany

An Arnsberg based company in Germany,

led or insolvency proceedings in March

2012. SolarHybrid was a photovoltaic pro-

ject developer. As an explanation or thisbankruptcy ling, the company claims that

it has run out o cash. Earlier the company

completed projects o various other US

based bankrupt manuacturers. However

the company was then unable to arrange

capital or the other projects to be built up.

Konarka Technologies, USA and

Germany

The most recent on the list to le or bank-

ruptcy is Konarka Technologies, based

in Nuremberg, Germany, who led or abankruptcy on 3rd July 2012. The com-

pany is a complete subsidiary o Konarka

Technologies, Inc. USA. The Konarka

group is considered to the market leader

in the production o Organic Photovol-

taic Systems (OPV) worldwide, where theNuremberg branch is responsible or sales

in the European region and research.

Things were manageable ater a while

rom the market downall, since the com-

pany received products rom its parent

company. However, considering that the

parent company itsel is going through

bankruptcy proceedings itsel, the German

subsidiary could not sustain itsel or long.

However the R&D is still running in

the company without hindrances and the

company is pretty positive about beingable to start product as soon as they nd

an investor.

Some more bad news or the industry

included can be seen in table 1.

This major disproportion in the solar

sector globally had been assumed to leave

the market by the end o 2011, but con-

versely we are seeing that it is pretty well

continuing to haunt the industry today as

well.

It comes across that the Asian market

has turned solar panels and modules into acommodity, which hasnt just aected the

present but also the uture o the American

and European manuacturers. However, it

is denitely too early to say, whether or

not, the emerging producers will continue

to dominate the market in the long term.

It is not a surprise that Indian solar

manuacturers who currently do not ac-

count or any major share in the global so-

lar trade, are caught in the game; at a time

when they had just entered the market.

Meanwhile, Indian Solar Power Devel-opers are still at a very nascent stage to

get aected but are enjoying the shit in

demand-supply which has decreased solar

panel prices considerably.

Company Country Primary Business

Stirling Energy Systems U.S Equipment and Project Developer

Photowatt France Solar Panel Maker

Solon Germany Solar Panel Maker, Project Developer

Energy Conversion Devices U.S Solar Panel Maker

Sun Concept Germany Project Developer

Ralos New Energies Germany Project Developer

Scheuten Netherlands Project Developer

Solar Trust of America U.S Solar Panel Maker, Project Developer

Odersun Germany Solar Panel Maker

Table 1.