Building integrated solar panels set to boom over the next 5 years

Solar panels that can be integrated right into rooftops and the walls of buildings is a new market that is set to grow dramatically over the next five years, according to a new report from Pike Research, a part of Navigant. The report says that the energy capacity of solar panels that are built into the structures of buildings will grow from 400 MW in 2012 to 2.25 GW in 2017, or a five-fold increase worldwide.

The solar industry calls this technology "building-integrated photovoltaics" or BIPV. Some of this new capacity will come from thin film solar panels that will be able to be printed right onto building materials, like shingles, steel roof casing, and windows. A lot of companies have been gunning for this market, and many have been held back by the difficult solar production market in 2012. There are at least 53 companies working on this tech, says Pike.

Dow launched its solar shingle product about a year ago in Colorado and began selling them in California and Texas earlier this year. Miasole, which was sold to China's Hanergy in a firesale, had been working on BIPV, as had Arizona-based Global Solar Energy, which recently started layoffs and curbed manufacturing. Dozens of solar module makers went bankrupt or struggled in 2012, due to an oversupply and rock bottom prices.

But the BIPV market could provide a bright spot, says the Pike report. The value of the BIPV market could quadruple over the next five years from $606 million in 2012 to $2.4 billion in 2017. The market will also be encouraged by a rebound of home sales and construction.

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/building-integrated-solar-panels-set-to-bo

SunPower pulls back on cell and panel production

The world simply has too many solar panels and not enough buyers. This imbalance already has forced many manufacturers out of business and some to make a huge cut in production. That’s what SunPower said on Tuesday it will do at its solar cell and panel factories Philippines.

The San Jose company says it will suspend production at six of the 12 production lines at Fab 2 for solar cells and 20 percent of the solar panel production in the southeast Asian country. SunPower also will cut about 900 employees, most of them located in the Philippines.

SunPower’s CEO, Tom Werner, issued this statement:

“Industry conditions continue to be challenging and while it is never an easy decision to reduce positions, we must make prudent decisions to effectively compete in an industry with significant overcapacity. Additionally, we’ll further our efforts to reduce costs and improve operational efficiencies.”

In April this year, SunPower announced it would shut down another solar cell factory, called Fab 1, in the Philippines. The goal was the same: to reduce costs so that it could sell its solar panels at more competitive prices. SunPower makes the most efficient silicon solar panels on the market, but its special technology also is more expensive. Its strategy has been to charge higher prices for the more efficient solar panels. But this strategy doesn’t work so well when there is a big oversupply problem.

Its main rivals, many of them in China, have been selling their less efficient solar panels at far lower prices. The pricing battle partly contributed to a trade complaint against Chinese solar cell makers, and the U.S. Department of Commerce decided last week to impose tariffs on imported silicon solar cells from China.

The tariffs aren’t likely to stop solar panel prices from falling, however. Chinese companies can skirt the penalties by buying solar cells from countries such as Taiwan and assembling them into panels in China. This approach will still increase their production costs, but not nearly at the levels of the tariffs.

SunPower sold a majority stake to French oil giant Total last year in order to gain financial help. SunPower said its 2012 sales forecast remains unchanged, and it will provide more details about its cost-reduction plans when it discusses its third-quarter earnings on Nov. 1.

SunPower isn’t alone in idling production lines and laying off a huge number of employees. First Solar has been doing that. Some veterans in the industry, such as Q-Cells in Germany, went bankrupt or have been sold. Many startups that tried to scale up production in the past two years failed because they couldn’t reduce their manufacturing costs fast enough. Solyndra and Abound Solar are two examples. Others, such as MiaSole, got scooped up on the cheap by conglomerates looking to add a diverse set of solar technologies and services in their portfolios.

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/sunpower-pulls-back-on-cell-and-panel-production/