Comments on: A Boom and Bust Cycle for Solar: Is SunPower In Trouble?

By: bikes

bikes — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:22:11 +0000

I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my delicious. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.

By: Web

Web — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:52:59 +0000

Green energy is definitely the best solution in most cases. Technology like solar energy, wind power, fuel cells, zaps electric vehicles, EV hybrids, etc have come so far recently. Green energy even costs way less than oil and gas in many cases.

By: Is First Solar Crashing Back to Earth? « Earth2Tech

Is First Solar Crashing Back to Earth? « Earth2Tech — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:16:27 +0000

[...] 16th, 2008 at 10:16 am in Energy We’ve seen solar stocks take a hit so far this year. SunPower’s shares have slumped 20 percent since the first trading day of 2008, and Chinese solar companies Trina Solar, Yingli Green Energy [...]

By: Stacey Higginbotham

Stacey Higginbotham — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:26:43 +0000

Dan I’m glad we agree on the valuation and I do agree that the ITC will have a local, rather than global affect, but I think it may affect stocks trading on U.S. markets simply based on perception. Also, with Germany phasing out its solar subsidies, demand in one of the, if not the, largest market for solar could fall. Since most of the solar panel manufacturers have supply contracts already in place for their polysilicon supplies that match with their planned manufacturing capacity, I’m not sure how much their growth will be constrained by that in the near term. But you’re right about the Chinese guys. Maybe the comparison was too broad.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:23:40 +0000

While I don’t disagree that solar stocks are over-valued and due for a correction, your rational is slightly off base. An excess of manufacturing capacity does not necessarily mean a supply/demand imbalance. In a market where manufacturers are supply constrained (polysilicon shortage) one would expect there to be excess capacity. In addition, with the exception of Suntech few Chinese companies are manufacturing cell technology. Many are simply buying cells from Europe and manufacturing modules. Lastly, while the failure to extend the ITC will have a significant impact upon the domestic demand, modules are a commodity in a global market. The US is not the primary market for most soalr technology. Again, I don’t disagree that many solar stocks (First Solar) are due for a correction.