Canadian Solar to sell 3.5 million shares in US

Canadian Solar Inc. has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 3.5 million new common shares in the United States in a public offering, the company said late Monday.

The China-based company also plans to grant its underwriters, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Piper Jaffray & Co., an option to purchase up to 525,000 additional common shares within 30 days of the offering.

Canadian Solar, which designs and manufactures products that convert sunlight into electricity, plans to use the proceeds from the offering for working capital, general corporate purposes and potential future acquisitions.

The company's shares soared $5.99, or 18 percent, to $38.39 Monday after the company raises its revenue outlook for the second quarter. Shares declined $2.39, or 6.2 percent, to $36 in after-hours trading.

LDK Solar signs 10-year deal with Photovoltech

Chinese solar company LDK Solar Co Ltd on Wednesday said it signed a 10-year contract to supply about 400 megawatts of solar wafers to Belgium-based Photovoltech.

The company said it will deliver the multicrystalline solar wafers -- the principal raw material used in solar cells -- from 2009 through 2018.

It did not disclose the value of the contract but said Photovoltech will make a down payment for a portion of the contract's value.

Shares of LDK closed at $38.39 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

clean energy investment grows in China

Wind power plants are attracting increasing investment in China, according to statistics from the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP).

The newly released UNEP report, Global Trends in Substantial Energy Investment 2008, shows that China's sustainable energy investment increased by 91 percent in 2007 to a record high 10.8 billion U.S. dollars, most of which has flowed to wind power generating units.

The heavy investment enabled China's wind capacity to double to6 GW last year.

Meanwhile, new investment in sustainable energy surpassed 148.4billion U.S. dollars on a global scale, up 60 percent year on year. Funds in the wind power sector became the biggest contributor to the surge.

"At present, wind and solar power have already stood as the hottest spots for renewable energy investment. Alternatives like hydropower and nuclear energy are also coming into the field," said Zhang Shigang, representative of UNEP China office.

Beijing has taken quick action to catch up with the new global trend in clean energy development. Guanting wind power plant, in suburban Beijing, began full operation here on Saturday, supplying wind generated electricity into China's capital for the first time.

With the last 10 wind power generating units officially certificated by Beijing Electric Power Company, the plant has now installed 43 domestically developed wind power units, with a capacity of 64.5 thousand kW.

The plant is expected to supply 100 million-kWh electricity per year, or 300,000 kWh per day, to meet the daily demand of 100,000 households.

Officials with Guanting called the wind power plant a key project for the success of Green Olympics. Statistics from Guanting shows that the power plant could help cut yearly emission of carbon dioxide by 100 thousand tonnes and save 50 thousand tonnes of coal each year.

China's ET Solar taps into Korea's PV market

ET Solar Group Corp, a Nanjing-based vertically integrated manufacturer of photovoltaic products, announced Wednesday it has won a deal to supply 500 kilowatt of PV modules to Techwin, a leading plant engineering and environmental technology development company in Korea.

The ordered 500 kilowatt of PV modules will be delivered to Techwin during the third quarter of this year. This deal is ET Solar's first step to tap into the Korean PV market. Earlier it has won supply deals in Italian and French markets, according to Wang Xinghua, CEO and chairman of ET Solar.

In the next few months, ET Solar hopes to forge some new relationships and become a bigger solar equipment supplier in the booming Korean PV market, said Wang. Sang-IK Park, Senior Managing Director of Techwin, said he expected to further cooperate with ET Solar in the future.

ET Solar provides high quality PV modules. It has two manufacturing facilities in Taizhou, China. It has expanded its business to the world's major solar markets, including the U.S., Germany, Italy, Spain, and Korea. Its products include ingots, wafers, modules, and state-of-the-art dual-axis tracking systems.

San Chih announces solar ingot investment in China

San Chih announces solar ingot investment in China

San Chih Semiconductor, the parent company of Green Energy Technology, has announced it will establish a solar ingot sawing production base in China.

San Chih said it will invest US$7.6 million to establish the plant. Industry sources added in saying that the plant is already under construction in Shandong and should be completed during late 2008.

In related news, San Chih also plans to hold an initial public offering (IPO) in Taiwan and is expected to submit its application in the third quarter. The official offering is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2009.

Funding rises for clean-tech start-ups (Not In China yet)

Not In China yet, It's U.S.

Despite the slow economy, venture-capital funding of clean-tech start-ups in the USA and abroad is on pace for a record year, according to a report released Tuesday.
In the second quarter, venture funding for nearly 100 biofuel, solar, wind and clean-water start-ups hit a quarterly record of nearly $2 billion — a 58% jump from the same time last year, says the Cleantech Group, a market research firm in San Francisco.

The rise in clean-tech funding comes despite a limping U.S. economy and weak markets for initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions — the traditional "exit strategies" for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists hoping to sell their stock publicly or sell to a larger company.

"Interest in clean tech continues to show robust growth, despite the impact of economic headwinds and credit market restraints," says John Balbach, managing partner at Cleantech.

Venture firms, start-ups and corporations are pouring more dollars into clean technologies because of higher energy and commodities prices, tightening supplies of oil, tougher regulations on carbon emissions and other economic factors, says Brian Fan, Cleantech's senior director of research.

At the same time, venture capitalists are shifting more of their assets from the traditional sectors of software, medical devices and biotechnology into the clean-tech arena in the USA, Europe, Israel, China and India.

"Investors and entrepreneurs are making two big bets," Fan says. "How do we replace coal as the primary fuel for electricity generation, and how do we replace oil as the primary fuel for transportation?"

Much of the funding is going to young companies working on:

•Solar thermal technology. Start-ups such as eSolar, SkyFuel and BrightSource Energy are building large-scale, solar thermal technology that creates steam to run turbines.

•Second-generation biofuels. Range Fuels, Aurora BioFuels, Greenline Industries and other start-ups are using algae, cellulosic ethanol and materials other than food crops.

Clean-tech investments and technologies are getting more attention mainly from companies in the auto, transport, shipping and petrochemical industries, which are paying higher prices for raw materials, Fan says.

Clean-tech start-ups still have a long way to go, though. Fan estimates it will take five to 15 years before clean-tech products and services are embraced by mainstream corporations and have a large impact on the economy and the environment.

"We're still in the very early stages of the game," Fan says. "But once growth companies prove their technologies, fine-tune their business models and build sales channels to customers, we'll start seeing a steady progression of acquisitions by large companies."

Kunming named China's 'Solar City'

Kunming has some of the sunniest skies found in any Chinese city. Many visitors to the Spring City wonder why with so many beautiful days each year there aren't more rooftop gardens, cafes or restaurants. One major reason for this is the overwhelming number of Kunming rooftops that are covered with solar water heaters.

A new report by the Worldwatch Institute has declared Kunming to be China's "Solar City", primarily because of the prominence of solar water heaters in the city. The report estimates that more than half of the city uses solar energy to heat its water.

Solar-heated water can be found throughout the city, generally in buildings of 10 stories or lower. Most of the city's newer high-rise apartment buildings and some of the newer high-end residential developments in the city's southwest do not offer solar-heated water.

According to the article, around 30 million households throughout China have solar water heaters - nearly eight percent of those households being located in Kunming. Solar water heaters are becoming increasingly common in other parts of the country because of the growing availability and affordability of solar technology.

Kunming is emerging as a city at the front of China's solar industry - and not just as an end user. Yunnan Normal University is home to the Solar Energy Research Instititute, which was founded in 1971 and is playing an increasingly important role in solar technology research and development.

In recent years the Institute has cooperated with the Ford Foundation via the foundation's Pathways to Higher Education program to expand research, development and use of solar technology throughout Yunnan. The Institute even offers free testing services for Chinese solar companies seeking certification for their products, essentially helping to expedite new products and technologies to the market.

The central government in Beijing is also funding the construction of 30 solar power plants in Yunnan, working through Yunnan Normal's Institute. With a greater number of sunny days than the majority of other Chinese cities, the facilities and manpower at YNU's Solar Energy Research Instititute and a desire by the national and provincial government for cleaner energy alternatives, Kunming is moving toward becoming an alternative energy leader for cities around China and the world.

China's sunshine boy - Shi Zhengrong

The increasing global focus on renewable energy could not have come at a better time for Dr. Shi Zhengrong, an Australian citizen and Chinese-trained scientist who says he got into solar power by chance.

Shi, 44, is the chief executive of Suntech Power Holdings, one of the new breed of successful domestic China-based companies with global ambitions.

After spending a year at Sydney-based University of New South Wales' renewable energy center in 1988, Shi found himself at a company formed to commercialize the ideas of fellow researchers.

"I never thought this solar business could take off or become commercially viable. I thought I just needed to concentrate on my research and publish papers to do my job as a scientist," Shi told The Associated Press in an interview.

Regular trips back to his homeland China to lecture on solar power coincided with a global push for renewable energy. He says he saw an opportunity to make a difference in the world's energy industries.

"Solar power and other alternative energy is definitely the answer to sustainable development of human life, especially to resolve this global warming issue," Shi says.

The government of Wuxi, a city on Shanghai's western outskirts with ambitions as a high-tech center, put up US$6 million in 2001 to finance Suntech.

Shi bought out his backers and listed his $225 million (sales) company on the NYSE in 2005 where the company's market cap soared to $5.5 billion. Depending on the company's current share price, his worth hovers around US$2 billion.

Suntech, which started with 20 workers, remains headquartered in Wuxi, but now occupies four sites with a total workforce of 3,500.

The company's photovoltaic systems are used in a wide range of applications, including communications and broadcasting, transportation, housing and military.

Currently under construction in Wuxi is the world's largest energy wall, a curtain of solar cells integrated into the city's airport. It's a large-scale advertisement for the technology of Suntech, but currently the biggest market for it's products is Europe.

A major exporter to the rest of the world, Suntech's aim is to reduce the cost of production to a point where China actually uses a far greater share of current sales.

Only about 10 percent of Suntech's 2006 sales of US$599 million were in China, with 80 percent of Suntech's products going to Europe, in particular Germany.

"We use the energy in China to manufacture these things, so we take the blame for using the energy in China then we ship them out of the country," says energy analyst James Brook.

But Shi is working on changing that and is committed to becoming the "lowest cost per watt" provider of photovoltaic solutions to customers worldwide

"When the cost comes down a little bit more, the market will be booming in China," Shi says.