Solar conference overview
I didn’t go to the solar conference last week, but if you’re looking for an overview check out the Cleantech Blog and this podcast from RenewableEnergyAccess.com, which managed to snag an interview with venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. The San Jose Mercury News also had a short story worth reading. Meanwhile, Red Herring has an article that discusses “Three Huge Solar Trends” and another piece about Khosla and his belief that centralized, utility-scale solar that uses concentrator technology is where the greatest opportunity lies.
One more thing: While I’m at it, here are two interesting pieces from CNET’s News.com, the first about new solar technology from Sharp and the second one putting the huge growth in solar cell/panel/module manufacturing into perspective.
And another thing: Seems ATS’s soon-to-be-spun-off Photowatt Technologies is considering a shutdown of its highly anticipated Spheral Solar business. The Spheral Solar technology has always held considerable potential. It’s flexible, can come in different colours, can have advertising printed on it, doesn’t use a lot of silicon, and could be manufactured at low cost because of its unique design. Problem is, trying to mass-produced the bloody things are tricky, and perhaps too tricky for Photowatt to make a reliable product.
MacMurray Whale at Sprott Securities, after analysing a recent amendment to Photowatt’s SEC F-1 filing in advance of its IPO, found that the company is downplaying the Spheral Solar (SSP) business and has removed all references that say Photowatt will benefit from the technology. “There is an apparent additional disclosure that there is an expected program review of SSP in January 2007, at which point a decision may be made to terminate development,” wrote Whale. “This opens the possibility that SSP could be abandoned in the near term.” That would be a shame, though Whale believes the company can still salvage its IPO if it does a good job promoting Photowatt’s traditional solar business in France and its proprietary silicon processing capability.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
