Yingli Solar

Solar cell production to grow 56% in 2009

Posted on by matthewlim

Reuters reported on 11 Aug 2009 that solar cell manufacturing capacity will grow 59% in 2009 despite weakened demand for renewable energy projects in the face of tight credit markets and a global economic recession in a report issued by research group DisplaySearch. DisplaySearch joined the solar market research bandwagon when it released its first Quarterly PV Cell Capacity Database & Trends Report on 11 Aug 2009.

Summary of the report:
1. Cell manufacturing capacity will reach 17 GW this year and will surpass 42 GW by 2013, growing at a rate of 49% per year.
2. While demand for PV panels is shrinking 17% this year and enormous oversupply eroded prices, the solar industry will begin working through the excess capacity as demand recovers next year and takes off in 2011 and beyond.
3. From Jan 2008 to July 2009, about 11.4 GW of new solar cell capacity was installed worldwide.
4. The report named First Solar as the largest solar cell manufacturer with more than 1 GW of capacity. Q-Cells and Suntech Power come in second.
5. By 2013, these companies and JA Solar Holdings, Motech Industries, Renewable Energy Corp (REC), SunPower, Yingli Green Energy Holding, Showa Shell Sekiyu KK and Sharp Corp may be among the top 10 makers, with more than 16 GW or 38% of total capacity in 2013.
6. Through 2006, Japan had the largest solar cell production capacity in the world. However, Chinese companies started to ramp up a host of new facilities in 2005 and by 2007 had more solar cell capacity on line than any other country. China has continued to invest heavily in production facilities, about a third of the worldwide cell capacity in 2009 and is forecast to be the main region for cell production well into the future.
7. In 2005, 95% of solar cell manufacturing capacity was for crystalline silicon solar cells and 5% for thin film solar cells. In 2009, thin film will account for more than 20% of capacity. By 2013, thin film technologies are forecast to account for as much as 30% of solar cell capacity.

Top PV Companies in the world

Posted on by matthewlim

The following table is the top 10 photovoltaic device suppliers in 2008:

IC Insights 2008 Solar Ranking Table

Another research firm, iSuppli, ranked the top 20 global solar companies in Q1-2008 by production in 2007 and by announced production capacity 2010:

Top 20 PV_iSuppli
Top 10 Suppliers of PV Manufacturing Supplier in 2008 by VLSI Research:

VLSI PV Mfg Equipment Top 10 Suppliers

The following is summarized from IC Insights Research Bulletin 2009 report Solar Energy: Growth Oppor­tu­ni­ties for the Semi­con­duc­tor Industry:

1. Japan’s sup­pli­ers of solar PV cells and pan­els, which dom­i­nated the indus­try for many years, slipped in the sup­plier rank­ings in 2008.

2. Sharp was the No. 1 PV device sup­plier in 2006 and for sev­eral years before that but was overtaken by Q-Cells and Sun­tech Power Hold­ings in 2007. First Solar blew past both Sharp and Sun­tech, push­ing Sharp down to No. 4 in 2008 rankings, which are based on peak-megawatt value of the PV devices pro­duced and sold by each supplier.

3. Sharp was not the only Japan­ese sup­plier whose posi­tion declined in the 2008 rank­ing. Kyocera Corp. slipped from the No. 5 spot in 2007 to No. 6 in 2008. Sanyo, which was No. 7 in 2007, did not make top 10 in 2008. Mit­subishi also dropped in the ranking.

4. Future rank­ings are expected to show sig­nif­i­cant changes due to small incre­ments that sep­a­rate the top play­ers. The top 4 sup­pli­ers all achieved mar­ket­ share (based on MW sales) between 8.0% and 9.5%. A sec­ond tier of sup­pli­ers, formed by those ranked No. 5 to No. 10, have between 4% and 5% mar­ket­ share.

5. Other than First Solar, the ris­ers in the top 10 list were exclu­sively sup­pli­ers based in China or Tai­wan. Although Sun­tech slipped from No. 2 to No. 3, JA Solar Hold­ings rose from No. 10 to No. 7 in based on 109% growth in MW sales in 2008. Yingli Green Energy Hold­ing advanced from No. 9 to No. 8 on the strength of 93% growth.

6. In Tai­wan, Motech Indus­tries mov­ed from No. 6 to No. 5 thanks to a 67% increase in MW sales. But per­haps more impres­sive was the per­for­mance of Gin­tech Energy, which equaled First Solar’s growth of 144% in MW sales in 2008, pulling itself up from No. 12 to No. 8.

7. Gin­tech, like JA Solar, makes solar cells only; these 2 com­pa­nies fol­low the busi­ness model of top-ranked Q-Cells, which has only recently started to diver­sify beyond pure-play PV cell man­u­fac­tur­ing. Other sup­pli­ers are involved in panel man­u­fac­tur­ing, sys­tem instal­la­tions, and other aspects of the solar value chain.

8. No. 10 Solar World AG, a Ger­man com­pany that holds the dis­tinc­tion of being the biggest man­u­fac­turer of PV cells in the U.S., thanks to the recent expan­sion of its plant in Hills­boro, Ore­gon.

9. A U.S.-headquartered cell man­u­fac­turer, Sun­Power, almost made it into the top 10 in 2008, but Sun­Power man­u­fac­tures its cells in plants in the Philippines.

Comment: Chinese and Taiwanese rise up in the ranking as they are able to compete on cost, unlike Germany and Japan. I post here a map of PV manufacturer locations in China. Not sure how dated is the map but if you’re looking for JA Solar, you should look for “Jing Ao Solar” in the map:

Locations of Major PV Manufacturers China

Balderton Capital

Posted on by matthewlim

About: Based in London, Balderton Capital now manages approximately US$1.9bn in committed venture capital making it one of the largest VC firms outside the US. Since its inception in 2000, Balderton has invested in over 80 companies across a wide variety of technology sectors and geographies, including Europe, the US and China. Notable investments include bebo, (the social networking site, sold to AOL for US$850m), Betfair (the online betting exchange), Codemasters (the video games publisher), MySQL (the open-source database business, sold to Sun for US$1bn) and Setanta Sports (the European sports broadcaster).

www.balderton.com

Key Personnel:
Barry Maloney, General Partner
Mark Evans, General Partner
Bernard Liautaud, General Partner
Tim Bunting, General Partner
Dharmash Mistry, Partner
Jerome Misso, Partner
Roberto Bonanzinga, Partner

Portfolio:
Greentech – GCL Silicon, MBA Polymers, TerraPass, Yingli Solar.

News: Balderton was founded in 2000 by Benchmark Capital, the leading US Silicon Valley venture firm. Balderton was then known as Benchmark Europe. Both firms have always been managed separately, and Balderton formally became an independent firm in 2007. However, Balderton maintains close ties with Benchmark Capital.

Balderton Capital, announced in January 2009 that it has raised US$430m in the first closing for its new US$500m fund, Balderton IV. This is Balderton’s fourth fund, having raised US$550m in December 2006, US$375m in July 2004 and US$500m in May 2000.

Rapid TV News reported in June 2009 about “the scale of the huge losses that Irish pay-TV broadcaster Setanta. For the moment it seems that Setanta’s investors alone will lose some £450m. Shareholders will lose all their investments, says administrator Deloitte. This means that private equity investors Doughty Hanson will lose £85m, although a spokesman stressed that while unfortunate this needed to be set alongside the significantly larger sums that the firm has under management. Other investors, including Balderton Capital (and Barry Maloney) as well as the two founders, Leonard Ryan and Michael O’Rourke, will lose their complete stakes.”

balderton