"After having acquired MSK, one of the industry leaders in the building integrated photovoltaic products (BIPV) space, we were very pleased to see that there is both a strong and long term global sales market for these products, especially thin film PV modules", said Dr. Zhengrong Shi Suntech's Chairman and CEO.

Picture: Suntech

"We anticipate many complementary sales opportunities to our traditional PV product customer base. We plan to combine our thin film product with MSK's BIPV product thereby capturing a greater portion of the PV value chain in a higher margin, higher ASP and higher value added product segment", Dr. Shi added.

"We believe that Suntech is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this long term sales opportunity not only because of MSK's leading BIPV capabilities, but also as we have significant thin film expertise among our senior management and R&D team. In fact, a majority of our executive officers, including myself, have had long and substantive experience in thin film product research and development. Our new facility's proximity to Shanghai will also help us continue to attract highly qualified personnel and put Suntech in an excellent position to further promote solar solutions in the regions that we serve," continued Dr. Shi.

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (05/30/2007)

Spain: IBERDROLA Ingeniería lands contract for 10 MW solar photovoltaic power

IBERDROLA Ingeniería y Construcción will build a 10 MW solar photovoltaic power station on a 60-hectare site in Spain’s western province of Cáceres. The Talayuela PV station will take ten months to build and is scheduled to go on stream in the first quarter of 2008, Iberdrola, S.A. reports in a press release. Under the terms of the contract, the Company will deliver the plant on a turnkey basis at two sites. They each will supply 5 MW of nominal power: 50 plants of 100 kW with silicon-crystal PV panels installed on double-axis solar trackers. The Talayuela solar park is IBERINCO’s second solar photovoltaic major project. It recently won a contract to build a 11.65 MW PV facility in Soria. The engineering division according to the company already has brought a total of 8.2 MW of solar power on stream in the last few years, and with another 21 MW in the pipeline. In addition to Spain, it operates in Greece, Italy, France and the United States, all countries with great PV growth potential.

Photovoltaic solar installation started up by IBERDROLA Ingeniería y Construcción in the Murcia region in 2006.

Picture Source: IBERINCO

According to own data IBERINCO is Spain’s largest energy engineering enterprise by sales, which climbed by 35.3 % to € 648.8 million in 2006, when it posted net earnings of € 33.3 million, a 22.4 % increase. At the close of 2006 the company’s project portfolio was worth € 2.5 billion. It employs 1,500 people.

IBERDROLA, S.A.(05/29/2007)

German PV-Producer SOLON AG starts off 2007 with strong sales growth

Berlin based SOLON AG für Solartechnik (ISIN DE0007471195), on Mai 23rd presented its report on the first quarter of 2007. SOLON AG's business operations performed in accordance with expectations during the first quarter, the company reports in a press release. Group revenues rose 48 % to EUR 75.1 million (Q1 2006: EUR 50.9 million). EBIT increased by 16 % to EUR 5.0 million (Q1 2006: EUR 4.3 million), and EBITDA rose 22 % to EUR 6.7 million (Q1 2006: EUR 5.5 million). The Group's net income improved to EUR 12.2 million (Q1 2006: EUR 2.5 million). After adjustment for the special effects from the sale of our stake in Dutch solar cell manufacturer, Solland Solar Energy Holding B.V, adjusted net income after minority interests equals EUR 2.7 million. Earnings per share amounted to EUR 1.31 (Q1 2006: EUR 0.28 million). Without the aforementioned special effects, earnings per share would have amounted to EUR 0.29.

SOLON's export business experienced particularly good momentum once again. Numerous power plant projects were continued in Spain, and delivery of the 5,000th SOLON Mover is imminent.

In demand: SOLON-Mover, PV Systems made in Germany. Picture Source: SOLON AG

Growing export business, subsidiary in the USA

In addition to the Southern European markets, the company focused activities on the U.S. growth market, where SOLON began development of a subsidiary in the first quarter of 2007: SOLON America Corporation, with registered offices in Tucson, Arizona, will take up production for the North American market at the end of 2007.

The steady growth of the Company is also reflected in the rising number of employees. At the end of the first quarter of 2007, the SOLON Group employed 548 people. This represents an increase of 15 % over the previous year. For 2007 as a whole, the Company is confirming its forecast of a rise of more than 30 % in Group revenues and net income adjusted for disposal proceeds. The full report of SOLON AG for the quarter ended March 31st, 2007 is available for download from the Company's website at www.solonag.com.

SOLON AG (05/23/2007)

Solar Powered Boat "sun21" makes historic arrival
into new York Harbor

sun21, the solar powered catamaran developed and sponsored by the Swiss transatlantic21 Association arrived at New York’s North Cove Marina at 3:00 pm on May 8th 2007. The arrival completes a 7,000 mile journey across the Atlantic in a motorized boat that utilized not one drop of oil. transatlantic21 Association set out to prove the feasibility of clean energy vessels on open seas, as well as the wide spread applications of this technology to transform the shipping and boating industry. This technology will benefit waterways and conserve other natural resources as well. The solar-powered catamaran left continental Europe on December 3rd 2006 from Chipiona, Spain. It arrived in Martinique on February 2nd completing its journey on the open seas and has been travelling up to New York through March and April.

transatlantic21 (05/14/2007)

SunTechnics strengthens solar thermal business in California through acquisition

SunTechnics Energy Systems, Inc.(Sacramento, CA), a 100 percent subsidiary of SunTechnics GmbH, based in Hamburg (Germany), now also ranks among the leading providers of solar thermal systems after the acquisition of Aztec Solar in the US state of California. The enterprise founded by Ed Murray in Sacramento in 1996 is profitable according to SunTechnics. With a turnover of approximately three million dollars currently it ranks as number 4 in the solar thermal market on the US west coast, Suntechnics reports in a press release. Up to now, the team of 30 employees has installed more than 7,500 turn-key solar thermal systems for residential and commercial customers in California. The Californian market for solar thermal grew by over 50% in the past two years alone and with an installed thermal output of approximately 80 megawatts in 2006 is only at the beginning of a still more dynamic trend of demand.

"As part of SunTechnics we will now offer our customers turnkey renewable energy systems for heat or electricity and use the synergies from the strong selling and service network," says Ed Murray who is excited about the co-operation.

Murray was a Director of the CAL SEIA (The California Solar Energies Industries Association) for many years and will now be responsible for the SunTechnics U.S. solar thermal business unit. "Together with our new colleagues from Aztec Solar, we are now gaining the edge in experience in order to add strong market shares - in addition to photovoltaics - in the solar thermal business and to increase our turnover tenfold in 2007. At the same time we can ideally combine their sales know-how with our product expertise," explains Florian Edler, managing director of SunTechnics USA.

California to become one of the best future markets for solar energy

Rising gas and oil prices as well as favorable geographical conditions make California one of the best future markets for solar energy. So far the demand for solar thermal in the US has been concentrated to over 90% on heating private swimming pools. Due to current tax credits of 30% for residential and commercial applications, there is an above average rising demand for domestic hot water heating and for general

SunTechnics (05/11/2007)

SunTechnics commissioned with turnkey construction of a 20-megawatt solar power plant in South Korea

Before the year 2007 is over, the largest photovoltaic plant will be constructed in SinAn, southwest of the Korean capital Seoul. The leading construction company in Korea, Dongyang Engineering & Construction Corporation of Seoul, commissioned the German company SunTechnics, a subsidiary of the TecDax listed Conergy AG, with the planning and implementation of the 90 million Euro solar power plant. With four decades of experience, Dongyang Holding is numbered among the Korean pioneers in the construction industry. Thanks to their unique success story, the corporation is considered to be one of the leading companies which have made a decisive contribution to the Korean economic miracle. In 2005, the Korean construction experts with some 1,650 employees attained an annual turnover of EUR 550 million, Sun Technics emphasizes in a press release.

Already grid connected: solar power plant by SunTechnics in South Korea, with an output of one megawatt.

Picture Source: SunTechnics.

Largest photovoltaic plant in Asia as a model project for sustainable power generation

The new sun-tracking photovoltaic system, with a total maximum output of 19.6 megawatts, matches the size of some 80 football fields (600,000 m²), and will produce annually more than 27,000 megawatt-hours of environmentally-friendly electricity from the sun in the future. This will correspond to the annual power consumption of more than 6,000 households. "We are pleased to have won SunTechnics, by far the world’s most experienced full-service provider of renewable energy solutions, as partner in this major project, which is unique in its size and conception", reported Yoon-shin Choi, Chairman of DongYang E&C, who has been interested in the renewable energy industry business for a long time already.

109,000 PV modules, 426 kilometers of cables and 3,000 tons of steel

"With the construction of this photovoltaic plant in Sinan, we are giving Korea an important signal about sustainable and clean power generation. Discharge of 300,000 tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide will be averted solely by the operation of our installations over the next 15 years", added Choi. In several test phases, the Korean building-industry specialists, together with SunTechnics verified in advance the optimal performance of the state-of the art tracking solar technology. In total, some 109,000 solar modules will be installed by SunTechnics on sun-tracking mounting systems, more than 426 kilometers of professionally laid cables and more than 3,000 tons of sheeted steel.

SunTechnics extends its market leadership

SunTechnics was already able to establish itself as the leading provider of turnkey systems for the utilization of renewable energies in South Korea in 2006. Two solar power plants in the regions of Incheon and MuAn, each with an output of one megawatt, have already been successfully connected to the power grid. Construction work on two further solar power plants, each with an output of one megawatt, began at the end of the previous year. With the construction of the world’s largest solar power plant, the Hamburg engineering experts for renewable energy systems are further advancing their market lead, with a market share of more than 25 percent. "We are extremely pleased that Korea’s best-known construction company commissioned us as its partner and specialist for top-performing regenerative energy systems," explained Stefan Mueller, Regional Manager Asia-Pacific of SunTechnics. "As in Korea, we are profiting throughout the Asian-Pacific region from our unique experience in the installation of several thousand renewable energy systems around the world. Thanks to increased demand and a project pipeline filled to bursting, which ranges from solar home and hybrid systems to electrification in the countryside, through architectonically sophisticated photovoltaic systems integrated into facades, all the way up to largest solar power plants; we are further expanding our market positions in the most important growth regions in Asia. By 2008, we will have more than quadrupled our sales in Asia-Pacific and will have created many hundreds of jobs in the region," says Stefan Mueller.

SunTechnics (05/10/2007)