Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (STP)
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (STP) is the leading solar technology company in the world. It designs and manufactures photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules but the reduced demand and huge capacity build up over the last few years made solar product prices drop sharply.
Its products include monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon PV cells.
The recent oil price recovery helped the whole solar industry, since higher Oil prices means solar energy is more cost competitive and becomes more attractive as an alternative source of energy.
Suntech Power is one of the few solar stocks that is profitable in the last years, and even with the current crisis, it will probably remain profitable during this fiscal year, even if affected by the lower demand and the lower oil prices.
Suntech Power's latest upgrades and backing from China's goverment can guarantee that the company will bode well in the next years.
In the short-term, the technical analysis points to a possible retraction for the next weeks, but the trend for the next months seems to be either sideways or bullish.
If the world markets keep the recent recovery trend up, STP will probably follow along.
Suntech Power Holdings is up around 30% since the start of 2009, and more than tripled since its March lows.
Labels: photovoltaic, solar analysis, Solar Stocks, solarstocks, STP, Suntech Power
Suntech and Standard Solar Reach 5 Megawatt Solar Panel Supply Agreement
Agreement strengthens both companies' ability to respond to President Obama's call to 'harness the sun'
SAN FRANCISCO and GAITHERSBURG, Md., Jan. 27 /PRNewswire-Asia/ --
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP), the world's leading manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) modules, and Standard Solar, Inc. are looking forward to powering cleaner energy solutions throughout the Mid-Atlantic U.S. under a new agreement by which Suntech will supply up to 5 megawatts of photovoltaic solar panels to the Maryland-based solar developer and installer during 2009.
"Partnering with Suntech, a top-tier manufacturer offering a broad assortment of high-quality solar panels, better equips Standard Solar to fulfill its rapidly growing customer requirements from New Jersey and Pennsylvania to North Carolina and Virginia," said Scott Wiater, Vice President of Procurement at Standard Solar.
"Suntech looks forward to partnering with Standard Solar in supplying cleaner, cost-effective solutions to businesses, government agencies and homeowners. In addition to reducing the dependence on highly polluting fossil fuels, we believe that the solar industry can also help to generate new domestic, green jobs," said Roger Efird, President, Suntech America, Inc.
Full articleLabels: News, photovoltaic, solar panels, Solar power, STP, Suntech Power
Can You Go Cheaper Than First Solar?
And with the markets closed today, there's time to read more news articles.
Over at Greentech Media:
Can You Go Cheaper Than First Solar?Colorado's BrightPhase Energy says it can dramatically lower the total cost of solar power by exploiting photovoltaics, solar thermal and natural light.
Full articleLabels: News, photovoltaic, Solar power, Solar Technology, Thermal Storage
What's In Store For Alternative Energy With Obama's Cabinet?
Interesting read at Alt Energy Stocks:
As the Obama inauguration nears and his cabinet picks are made public, the impact of his presidency on the alternative energy sector is becoming more tangible. During the campaign, we heard plenty on Barack Obama's views on environmental regulation, climate change and alternative energy. But what about the people who will be advising him day-to-day on these matters, and who will be ambassadors both inside and out of the country for the administration's policies?
Read the rest
hereLabels: News, photovoltaic, Solar power, Solar Technology, tax incentives
40% efficient solar cells
Scientists from Spectrolab, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing, seem to have broken the latest performance record of efficiency in photovoltaic solar cells.
The solar energy industry keeps growing not just in producing capacity but in technology achievement and cost efficiency, probably surpassing the other alternative green energy methods in the following years.
Full news article from
physorg.com:
40% efficient solar cells to be used for solar electricity By Lisa Zyga
Scientists from Spectrolab, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing, have recently published their research on the fabrication of solar cells that surpass the 40% efficiency milestone—the highest efficiency achieved for any photovoltaic device. Their results appear in a recent edition of Applied Physics Letters.
Most conventional solar cells used in today’s applications, such as for supplemental power for homes and buildings, are one-sun, single-junction silicon cells that use only the light intensity that the sun produces naturally, and have optimal efficiency for a relatively narrow range of photon energies.
The Spectrolab group experimented with concentrator multijunction solar cells that use high intensities of sunlight, the equivalent of 100s of suns, concentrated by lenses or mirrors. Significantly, the multijunction cells can also use the broad range of wavelengths in sunlight much more efficiently than single-junction cells.
"These results are particularly encouraging since they were achieved using a new class of metamorphic semiconductor materials, allowing much greater freedom in multijunction cell design for optimal conversion of the solar spectrum," Dr. Richard R. King, principal investigator of the high efficiency solar cell research and development effort, told PhysOrg.com. "The excellent performance of these materials hints at still higher efficiency in future solar cells."
In the design, multijunction cells divide the broad solar spectrum into three smaller sections by using three subcell band gaps. Each of the subcells can capture a different wavelength range of light, enabling each subcell to efficiently convert that light into electricity. With their conversion efficiency measured at 40.7%, the metamorphic multijunction concentrator cells surpass the theoretical limit of 37% of single-junction cells at 1000 suns, due to their multijunction structure.
While Spectrolab's primary business is supplying PV cells and panels to the aerospace industry (many of their solar cells are used on satellites currently in orbit), the company envisions that this breakthrough will also have applications in commercial terrestrial solar electricity generation.
The research that led to the discovery of the high efficiency concentrator solar cell was funded partly by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and will play a significant role in the government’s Solar America Initiative, which aims to make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional electricity generation by 2015. The company has said that these solar cells could help concentrator system manufacturers produce electricity at a cost that is competitive with electricity generated by conventional methods today.
The Spectrolab scientists also predict that with theoretical efficiencies of 58% in cells with more than three junctions using improved materials and designs, concentrator solar cells could achieve efficiencies of more than 45% or even 50% in the future.
Citation: King, R. R., Law, D. C., Edmondson, K. M., Fetzer, C. M., Kinsey, G. S., Yoon, H., Sherif, R. A., and Karam, N. H. “40% efficient metamorphic GaInP/GaInAs/Ge multijunction solar cells.” Applied Physics Letters 90, 183516 (2007).
http://www.physorg.com/news99904887.htmlLabels: photovoltaic, solar cells, Solar Energy Products
