With the price of polysilicon falling by some 64% during 2011 to US$26.52, the biggest news in the sector involved bankruptcies of US firms, such as Solyndra, which could no longer compete with the Chinese. Some of the US companies which were suffering managed to find industry buyers – notably SunPower, which saw Total acquire a 66% stake. Despite the travails of the industry, venture capital stage investment in innovative technologies was still in evidence. We feature a selection of deals in this section. There were also significant levels of venture capital investment in the thin film and concentrated solar areas – both covered separately in the following sections. A notable trend was the purchase of solar project developers by Asian solar manufacturing companies, including the acquisition of CornerStone Power and Solar Power Inc. (featured earlier in the Renewable Energy Generators section). These deals follow a theme which dates back to the 2009 SunEdison acquisition by MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. and include the purchase of Recurrent Energy by Sharp, the largest Japanese solar panel manufacturer, for US$305 million in 2010. Asian companies see the need to acquire the project channels and financing projects – which will subsequently secure the market for their products. Purchase now! (£95 - or £195 including annual Cleantech magazine subscription)
The thin film solar sector was rocked by the high profile collapse of Solyndra during 2011. The year also saw consolidation in the thin film space, with deals reported including the acquisition of Würth Solar’s thin film production by Manz in Germany, which involved production capacity being slashed. However, if some of the venture capital investment in thin film technologies is any guide, it would be a mistake to write off this sector just yet. The failings in the Solyndra technology were a particular case, exacerbated by the fact that they coincided with plummeting prices for solar panels. The thin film market is expected to grow rapidly, underpinned by continuing developments in cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) technologies. This expectation is endorsed by the interest of giants such as GE and Intel. GE is is building upon its previous acquisition in the sector of CdTe thin film solar technology company PrimeStar, announcing in 2011 that it would be investing in a new factory. Also during the year, Intel invested in German company Sulfurcell, which is developing more efficient CIGS thin film cells. In terms of equity deals, the one which perhaps attracted most news coverage in the thin film sector was a project transaction: the sale of the 550MW Topaz thin film solar project by First Solar to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Purchase now! (£95 - or £195 including annual Cleantech magazine subscription)
The impact of plummeting silicon PV prices hit hard in the concentrated solar thermal space, where casualties included Millennium Solar and Stirling Energy Systems in the US, both of which entered into bankruptcy. The Power Purchase Agreement with PG&E for energy from the giant 280MW Abengoa Mojave Solar project, which is being supported by US$1.2 billion in loan guarantees from the US DoE, received approval to go ahead in November 2011, despite questions about the high costs being paid for the electricity. Mojave will use parabolic trough technology. Meanwhile, in Abu Dhabi, the 100MW Masdar Shams 1 parabolic trough solar thermal plant, being developed by Abengoa and Total, is reported to be gearing up for operation in 2012. However, a number of earlier stage projects are switching from the use of solar thermal technology to concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) technology. These include the Solar Trust of America Blythe project and the Calico and Imperial Valley projects, which were originally developed by Tessera Solar (a company owned by Ireland’s NTR, which held a majority stake in Stirling Energy Systems) and had planned to use Stirling technology. The end of 2011 saw a flurry of activity in CPV. France’s Soitec, which acquired Concentrix back in 2009 and is developing a 150MW CPV project in Southern California in partnership with Tenasaka, announced that it is investing over US$150 million in a Californian CPV plant in a factory acquired from Sony. The plant will produce silicon-on-glass Fresnel lens plates, developed through a joint venture with Reflexite, which are used in the Soitec CPV modules. Unsurprisingly, something of a schism has emerged in the concentrated solar space at the VC stage, with solar thermal technologies having fallen out of favour, although investors’ attention is still focusing on CPV – as many of the deals included here demonstrate. However, a focus on innovation in advanced solar thermal technology remains in place at governmental level, with the US DoE allocating US$60 million for research as part of its SunShot Initiative. The DoE-funded research will focus on efficiency improvements and cost reductions in collectors, receivers and power cycle equipment used in CHP. The concentrated solar industry has been consolidating and attracting attention from large industrial players for several years, with companies such as Siemens and Alstom having made acquisitions in the space. During 2011 ABB entered the game with investments in Novatec Solar and GreenVolts. GE invested in a solar thermal technology company, eSolar – and is combining the eSolar technology into an ‘Integrated Solar Combined Cycle’ system. Purchase now! (£95 - or £195 including annual Cleantech magazine subscription)
Under the shadow cast by the Fukushima nuclear accident early in the year, consolidation gathered pace in the utility sector in 2011. With stock markets at depressed levels, in Europe Iberdrola and EDF each acquired their respective listed renewable energy subsidiaries – and the cash-strapped Portuguese Government sold a stake in EDP to China Three Gorges. In the US, although not strictly renewable, energy deals announced included the US$16.2 billion plan to acquire Progress Energy (PGN) by Duke Energy Corp (DUK). That deal failed to gain approval before the end of 2011, but others were approved by the regulators – significantly, sometimes in exchange for commitments to invest in renewable energy. This was the case in the US$8.05 billion takeover by Exelon Corp (EXC) of Constellation Energy Group Inc. (CEG), which agreed to develop 180MW of wind and solar generating capacity. Meanwhile, niche stock market quoted renewable energy generators, lacking support from institutional investors, were forced into alternative funding deals. The acquisition of a majority stake in Brazil’s Renova Energia by Light, and the sale of the US offshore SeaEnergy Renewables unit to Spanish oil company Repsol are cases in point. Private equity investors also homed in on the solar market in 2011, with Terra Firma setting a record price for an acquisition of Italian solar assets and KKR investing alongside Google in a California PV project. 2011 was a “blockbuster year for debt funding” in the wind industry, which amounted to US$11 billion compared to US$1.8 billion in 2010, according to figures from the Mercom Capital Group. This surge in lending was accounted for in large part by a US$5 billion credit facility from the China Development Bank (CDB) to Ming Yang (which has a partnership with Three Gorges New Energy for offshore wind), for development outside of China. China’s Goldwind Science & Technology also received US$1.6 billion in credit. One of the first western developers to receive non recourse lending from the CDB was Mainstream Renewable Power, for a project in Chile using Goldwind turbines. Two other notable debt deals were a US$1.9 billion credit facility for Vestas from lenders including Commerzbank and DnB NOR Bank; and a US$1.7 billion syndicated loan received by Gamesa. There was also extensive activity in terms of equity transactions for project developers, both for project finance and in mergers and acquisitions. China, India and Brazil were amongst the most active markets for wind energy, but European markets were also active. While Google is focusing on solar, a notable non utility player in the wind market was Ikea Group, which acquired a wind farm in Scotland, building upon its renewable portfolio elsewhere in Europe. Purchase now! (£95 - or £195 including annual Cleantech magazine subscription)
There was plenty of news flow in the marine energy sector during 2011, with test devices being deployed and licences being awarded. Governments around the world are backing this sector. The year began with the news in January that the UK Technology Strategy Board had awarded funding of over £2.5 million for three R&D projects, in wave and tidal stream energy technologies, to Bauer Renewables Ltd, Pelamis Wave Power Ltd and Marine Current Turbines Ltd. And on the other side of the world, Langlee secured financing of NZ$312,000 from the New Zealand Government’s Marine Energy Deployment Fund for a Stewart Island project. The Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise, provides more than grant funding and is an equity investor in companies such as AWS and Aquamarine Power. However, it typically comes in at an early stage and larger private sector investors need to follow through to provide the backing needed for commercial deployment. In this context, the large industrials are becoming the major players. Where previously utilities were important investors in the marine energy sector, 2011 saw a consolidation of the trend towards large industrials becoming involved, with Siemens upping its stake in Marine Current Turbines (MCT), ABB investing further in Aquamarine Power and Alstom acquiring 40% of AWS. Purchase now! (£95 - or £195 including annual Cleantech magazine subscription)
|
Download now (full subscribers only) 
