ATS Automation released its quarterly financials this week and talked about how Photowatt International, the solar unit it plans to spin off in an IPO later this year, is focusing its attention more on Spain these days and less on Germany, which in past years has been the world’s solar superpower. “Spain has become its largest market, representing 38 per cent of revenue, with Germany representing 31 per cent of revenue for the six months ended September 30, 2006,” ATS said. “This compares to 14 per cent and 58 per cent for Spain and Germany respectively for the six months ended September 30, 2005.”

Want to know why? Well, Germany is gradually lowering its subsidies for solar products because the industry has become so mature there. Meanwhile, Spain is trying to catch up with plans to introduce its own subsidies and regulations to spur solar growth. Most recently, it announced that it will soon (by next March) be mandatory under a new building code to install solar panels on all new buildings in the country. For new homes, that will mean solar thermal panels to provide hot water, while for commercial building the focus will be on solar PV to provide a certain percentage of electricity.

It’s an aggressive policy, one to certainly watch and compare as Ontario embarks on its standard offer program.

SunPower Corp., maker of high-efficiency solar cells and panels, has agreed to acquire PowerLight Corp., one of the world’s leading designers and installers of solar PV systems. The deal is value at $332.5 million (U.S.) — $130 million in cash and another $202.5 million in SunPower shares. The combined company would have about 1,600 employees spread across 10 global sales offices and four manufacturing facilities.

This deal makes sense on the surface. PowerLight is not only one of SunPower’s largest customers, but it’s also one of the leading installers of solar PV systems in the world. It’s currently providing systems to more than a dozen homebuilders in California, and it is designing and developing large-scale solar farms — ranging in size from 1 MW to 20 MW — in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Korea. This deal signals that more solar PV cell/module makers may get more directly involved in the development and installation side of the business as they strive to become more vertically integrated. However, one must also wonder if SunPower risks losing business from other solar “systems integrators” that feel they can’t buy SunPower products at the same competitive rate as PowerLight.

Will be interesting to see how the market reacts, but so far SunPower’s shares are up today.

Hey, at least we can say we’re doing more than Kazakhstan, and of course the United States. But in an international report released yesterday that ranks countries based on their climate change initiatives, Canada ranks just 51st out of 56 countries — behind Thailand and Iran!!! Sweden, the U.K. and Denmark, no surprises, came out on top.

My Clean Break podcast today is a discussion with my friend Jose Etcheverry, the David Suzuki Foundation’s climate change expert. Jose, who just returned from a renewable energy storage conference in Germany, talks about trends in storage and smart grid technologies and speaks positively about developments in Ontario’s electricity sector when it comes to conservation and renewables.

My Clean Break column in today’s Toronto Star takes a closer look at plans by SunEdison and SkyPower to build up to 50 megawatts worth of solar projects in Ontario under the new standard offer program, which goes into effect next week. The companies, under a joint venture, plan within the next few weeks to announce their first 10-megawatt project, which would be the largest solar power plant in North America when built. The piece talks about the trend in large-scale solar facilities and how establishing too many of them too early in Ontario could actually hurt the industry in Canada. The Ontario Power Authority has a near-term target of only 50 MW installed capacity for Ontario and 100 MW over the next 20 years. If we blow past those targets that could be justification for taking away the 42-cent per kilowatt-hour premium for solar power through the standard offer program.

It calls into question: How much solar do we need established before we stop paying a hefty premium for it?