Indian utility NTPC to invite bids for dollar-based solar contracts

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  Indian State utility NTPC, will award tenders for between 500MW-1GW this month under dollar-based bidding. Flickr: Miran Rijavec

The Indian government is set to invite bids for dollar-based solar power contracts in order to encourage foreign investment in its ambitious solar programme, according to reports.

State-utility National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), will award tenders for between 500MW-1GW this month, Ministry of New and renewable Energy joint secretary Tarun Kapoor toldBloomberg in New Delhi.

The contracts will pay the rupee equivalent of the dollar tariff determined by the bidding. Meanwhile NTPC will also create a fund to manage the currency risk it takes on.

Kapoor told reporters that the dollar-linked tariffs could reduce developers' borrowing costs by around a third by dropping solar tariffs down by a similar fraction.

Jasmeet Khurana, senior consulting manager at analyst firm, Bridge to India, told PV Tech that tariff-based bidding is in the pipeline, which will be followed by viability gap funding. NTPC has to allocate 3,000MW of solar projects via this tariff-based bidding, of which around 1,420MW has already been allocated.

For the next 1,580MW, Khurana said dollar-based bidding is likely to make up part of that amount. He was not able to confirm a timeline for this bidding process.

He added such bidding “makes a lot of sense” from an international developer’s perspective, because another entity is able to take the currency risk away from the developer on top of the lower original costs of hedging when a public company or the government is involved.

Power minister Piyush Goyal had proposed the dollar tariff in a recent speech claiming it could encourage foreign investment and help “keep the cost of solar power very reasonable”.

India’s cabinet recently approved the country’s 100GW solar capacity target by 2022, as well as approving plans for the Solar Power Corporation of India (SECI), the main driver for the State’s National Solar Mission, to become a commercial entity and take on projects for other renewable energy technologies under the name Renewable Energy Corporation of India (RECI).

Khurana said that until now SECI has been facilitating project allocation, but needs to become a commercial entity and full solar developer so that the organisation does not “fade away” as the market matures. Responsibility for the national solar mission will is now split between SECI and NTPC.

Khurana said the transformation of SECI to its new role as RECI should not have an effect on the solar market.

Last week, Japanese telecoms provider-turned solar developer Softbank announced the first major foreign investment of US$20 billion in renewable energy in India, which would include all aspects of solar energy development, marking a significant “game changer” for India’s solar goals.

Tool Order: SEMCO wins post-ion implant anneal technology order on its DF6200 platform

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  PV equipment specialist SEMCO Group is to supply its latest LYTOX technology to an unidentified solar cell producer to carryout post-ion implantation damage annealing.

PV equipment specialist SEMCO Group is to supply its latest LYTOX technology to an unidentified solar cell producer to carryout post-ion implantation damage annealing.

SEMCO said that its latest design of its DF6200 high-throughput furnace platform equipped with the LYTOX reduced pressure post-implant activation and passivation technology also included its high throughput cassette to cassette wafer transfer automation system that enables the loading of 1,400 horizontal wafers per furnace tube for high-volume production, typically N-type monocrystalline and bifacial solar cells. 

Having recently teamed with process measurement specialist, Aurora Solar the order includes Aurora’s resistance measurement system and software. 

SEMCO noted that the customer had previously used its LYDOP-POCl3 systems, used for diffusion to realize the p-n junction and build-in voltage on solar cells.

N-type monocrystalline and bifacial solar cells are expected to gain increased acceptance by high-efficiency focused solar cell and module producers.

Thai Solar Energy kicks off 300MW plan with Japan projects

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  Solar development in Thailand. Image: Conergy.

Thai Solar Energy, a power producer which counts the Thai government among its clients, will build its first projects outside Thailand, beginning with three PV plants totalling 25MW in Japan.

The company said today that it plans to build 100MW of “overseas” plants by the end of 2016, and 300MW within three years of starting out. The first projects to be built should be completed “early next year”, Thai Solar Energy said.

Large-scale solar in Japan has seen something of a stumble in the past half-year or so, with grid connection issues and consumer electricity price pressure resulting in several reviews and reductions of the feed-in tariff (FiT) and a halt to the approval of new ‘megasolar’ projects. This means that with the exception of permission being granted for large PV plants to be built on specific types of underutilised sites, such as landfill, unusable agricultural land and evenabandoned golf courses, it is the backlog of already-approved PV projects that will sustain the downstream sector of the country’s PV market for some time.  

Despite this cooling of the market for new developments, analyst Hiroshi Matsukawa of Tokyo-based RTS PV has estimated that around 50GW of approved large-scale projects remain unbuilt. The rules have become a little more complicated since the last review of the FiT policy, however, with project developers being gently discouraged from selling on ownership rights to projects for profit and investors dissuaded from trying to buy into the upside of the more lucrative projects approved at the highest rates of the FiT, which was introduced in July 2012 and has subsequently been lowered by 10% or more each year. Developers with already approved projects are not allowed to change their module supplier from those registered with authorities when the initial application was submitted.

It is not immediately apparent which year’s FiT rate the Japanese solar farms Thai Solar Energy will build have been approved at, but the company said it expected to generate around THB300 million (US$8.9 million) in annual revenue once the 300MW of projects are completed.

The company did reveal that it will invest around THB2.5 billion (US$74 million) into the Japan projects, for which construction will begin later this year. Partnering with two Japanese companies, Eco Solar Japan and Prospec Holdings, Thai Solar Energy will build a 13MW plant in Aomori City, to the north of Honshu, Japan’s main island with the former. Meanwhile, the deal with Prospec will see two projects totalling 12MW built in Ibaraki City on the Kanto Plain about 120km from Tokyo. Partnering with local firms is considered essential to success in many of Japan’s major industries, with solar no exception.

Thai Solar Energy’s chairwoman and CEO, Dr Cathleen Maleenont, said that through a Singapore-based subsidiary, TSE Group International Pte Ltd, the company seeks to expand its footprint throughout Asia.

SunEdison to sell remaining shares in semiconductor business for US$193 million

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  The sale will be the final step in SunEdison's spin-off of the semiconductor arm. Image: SunEdison.

The final steps in SunEdison’s spin-off of its semiconductor business – through which the company was originally founded before its ascent to being the biggest renewable energy developer in the world – look set to go ahead. 

The sale could raise as much as US$290.8 million, after SunEdison Semiconductor announced that it will make 15.9 million shares of common stock currently held by shareholders available to the public. With 10.6 million of the shares, SunEdison Inc. could pocket US$193 million. Subsidiaries of Samsung own the remaining 5.3 million shares to be offered. The shares will be priced at US$18.25 per share, the company said. SunEdison Semiconductor, which makes polysilicon wafers, will not receive the proceeds of the sale.

The offering is expected to closed by 1 July, with Deutsche Bank Securities and Goldman Sachs managing the sale as lead book-runners. In addition, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Barclays Capital will also act as book-runners. Details have been filed with the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC).

The decision to get rid of the semiconductor arm of the business has been known about for some time. The August 2013 announcement caused a surge in share prices for SunEdison stock, PV Tech wrote, also reporting on the then-ongoing consolidation process of its manufacturing operations early last year.

Pattern Energy adds two PV projects to ROFO list

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  The two PV plants are both located in Japan and have already secured 20-year power purchase agreements. Image: Martin Abegglen/Flickr

Independent power company Pattern Energy has added two new PV plants — totaling 56MW — to its list of identified Right of First Offer (ROFO) projects from Pattern Energy Group LP.

The first project, Futtsu Solar, is a 42MW PV plant currently under construction in Chiba, Japan, that possesses a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Tokyo Electric Power Company. The second installation, Kanagi Solar, is a 14MW plant that is under construction in Shimane, Japan. Kanagi is locked in on a 20-year PPA with Chugoku Electric Power Company.

Along with these two projects, Pattern has also added four wind plants to its ROFO list, three of which will be located in Japan while one will be developed in Curry County, New Mexico. Pattern Development has now built up its project pipeline to 5,900MW.

Mike Garland, president and CEO of Pattern Energy, said: "Since the IPO we have expanded the ROFO list by 182%, offering investors detailed visibility into our growth plans.Between our operational facilities and our ROFO projects, we have also significantly expanded our reach, which now encompasses Chile, Japan, four provinces in Canada, Puerto Rico, and seven states across the United States.

"Included in the ROFO list is a large multi-phase project in New Mexico, which will deliver very attractively priced wind power directly into California. Our five new Japanese projects, which include two solar projects, demonstrate the progress that Pattern Development has made in its partnership with GPI in Japan.”

Garland continued: "Because of the great success of the relationship with Pattern Development, and given the dramatic expansion of its activities, we have agreed not to reintegrate the employees into Pattern Energy when the company hits the $2.5 billion market capitalization.”

Community solar ‘most significant’ growth market in US - GTM

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  The development of community solar is expected to gather pace in the US, becoming a 1.8GW market by 2020.

Community solar in the US is on course to become a 500MW annual market by 2020, making it the country’s most significant growth segment, a GTM Research report has claimed.

The study, ‘US Community Solar Outlook 2015-2020’, predicts a fivefold increase for the burgeoning market this year, followed by 59% compound annual growth thereafter.

Although it is currently only at a low base of 66MW countrywide, the levels of growth predicted by GTM will make it a half-gigawatt annual market by 2020, adding 1.8GW by that time.

The report identifies 24 states in the US with at least one community solar project online, and a further 20 states in the process or near enacting community solar legislation.

States with community solar legislation will be the key drivers of near-term growth in the segment, accounting for 80% of installations between now and 2015, GTM said. Over the next two years, four states – California, Colorado, Massachusetts and Minnesota – are expected to install the majority of community solar.

“Looking ahead to 2020 the community solar opportunity is poised to become more geographically diversified, as developers ramp up service offerings to utilities in states without community solar legislation in place and national rooftop solar companies enter the community solar scene,” said GTM Research's senior solar analyst Cory Honeyman.

The report identifies 29 developers that are actively working on community solar projects, with two companies – Clean Energy Collective and SunShare – jointly accounting for 32% of operating community solar capacity.

Earlier this month, leading US installer SolarCity signalled its first foray into community solar when it revealed plans to build a series of community solar gardens in Minnesota.

UK installed more than 2.5GW of solar in Q1 2015

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  UK installed almost as much solar in Q1 2015 as it did in all of 2014. Source: Lightsource.

The UK solar industry connected 2.53GW of new solar capacity to the grid in the first quarter of 2015, according to the latest figures obtained by Solar Intelligence.

The astonishing amount of new capacity completed in the first three months of the year almost eclipses what the UK industry managed to install in total in 2014 – itself a record-breaking year for UK PV deployment.

The data has been obtained from combining the latest data fields from the regulator Ofgem, new site accreditation registers and council planning databases with the extensive bank of in-house surveys and interviews carried out by PV Tech's publisher Solar Media since the start of 2015.

The 2.53GW of new capacity means that the UK now has 8.16GW of solar capacity as of 31 March 2015.

Figure: New analysis undertaken by the Solar Intelligence team confirms that the UK added 2.5GW in Q1 2015, taking cumulative solar PV deployed in the UK to 8.1GW at the end of March 2015. 94% of new solar PV capacity added in Q1 2015 was from renewable obligation-funded, ground-mount solar farms.

During the past few months the Solar Trade Association and UK Solar have been highlighting that the 8GW mark was indeed passed at the end of Q1 2015, in contrast to data from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that was putting solar PV deployment at just 6.5GW at the end of March.

Our Solar Intelligence team is currently undertaking new research to understand exactly what the time lag is for renewable obligation based projects getting counted on DECC’s monthly deployment figures, and an article will appear on this in the next few days once we have consulted with all relevant stakeholders in the UK. However, another good marker for the 2.53GW figure is that this appears to be within 10% of unofficial estimates that DECC has been using for their own internal modelling purposes.

According to Finlay Colville, head of market intelligence at Solar Media’s new Solar Intelligencegroup: “Given the strong correlation with the trade organisations’ figures, it would now appear that Solar Media’s coverage of the UK solar industry is providing the most accurate and up-to-date deployment data on the UK solar industry.

“The developers and EPCs that enabled 2.5GW of solar PV within just three months should be given massive credit in helping the UK move towards its target to increase renewable energy contributions. The fact that 2.5GW was deployed with almost no media backlash also shows that the industry is conducting its affairs in a very professional manner.”

Solar Media's new division Solar Intelligence launches its first ever report on 1 July, 2015. The Large-scale Ground Mount UK database allows you to access raw data on the top-500 companies active in the UK Large Scale Ground Mount Sector. To pre-order or find out more about the report go here.

Note: if you pre-order before 1 July you can save £300 on the report paying only £995, reduced from the standard price of £1,295 from 1 July

Neo Solar Power reveals business growth strategy

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  Neo Solar Power is taking a 'wait-and-see' approach to building any new capacity overseas, but has a possible route to future growth its planned yieldco. Image: NSP
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  NSP's sales have been impacted by the US anti-dumping case but has plans to reach US$1.0 billion in sales before its 10th anniversary. Image: PV Tech

Financials

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Major merchant solar cell producer Neo Solar Power (NSP) may be taking a cautious ‘wait-and-see’ approach to moving production outside Taiwan to circumvent US anti-dumping duties but its plan to launch a yieldco on the Hong Kong stock exchange reveals a more aggressive option to rekindle its business growth.

A recent visit by PV Tech to NSP’s headquarters in Hsinshu, Taiwan, was intended to understand and gain insight into the company’s strategy to rejuvenate sales, which had sunk significantly since June 2014 following the US anti-dumping case.

The backdrop had been comments from a number of Taiwanese and Chinese PV manufacturers including NSP, indicating that overseas production plants were being considered.

Rivals, such as solar cell producer Gintech Energy, had only just announced plans to build a 350MW cell production facility in Thailand ahead of PV Tech's Taiwan trip. 

However, Simon Li, VP of business & worldwide sales and marketing at NSP, quickly dispelled any suggestion of the company following Gintech’s strategy in the near future. 

“The potential risks and cost are huge,” said Li. “We have looked at many places such as India, Malaysia and Thailand but the key was to evaluate where we could produce overseas that was overall lower cost. At this time we do not make a decision, perhaps at the end of the year will be clearer.”

Surprisingly at the time, Li said that the company had a target of becoming a US$1 billion company within the first 10 years of its creation, referencing the fact that the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, Taiwan-based TSMC, did not achieve that milestone within that timeframe. 

NSP was officially incorporated in August, 2005 and started commercial operations in December 2006. The company has been listed on the TWSE since January 2009. NSP had revenue of around US$898.45 million in 2014. 

With a wait-and-see approach to locating production overseas to revive its solar cell business and a growth target that therefore seemed impossible to reach, the implication it was relying on just organic growth did not resonate well.

However, just after PV Tech’s Taiwan trip, NSP announced that its EPC and project development subsidiary, General Energy Solutions (GES), would launch a yieldco IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange. 

NSP is directly investing US$50 million to establish the yieldco, which is expected to float either at the end of 2015 or sometime in the first quarter of 2016, according to the company. 

In a similar vein to other PV manufacturers with yieldco plans, NSP noted that expanding its downstream activities through capital raised in the yieldco would also support its upstream solar cell and module business, providing increased internal demand and the growth demand to match the revenue target previously highlighted by Li.

The previous picture of NSP has therefore changed and understandably; Li did not speak of the GES plans, only touching on the fact that GES was a subsidiary of the company. 

The downstream growth plans also made sense of NSP’s plans to add module capacity at Del Solar, with which NSP merged in late 2012. 

NSP ran at 100% utilisation rates in 2014 and increased module capacity from 240MW to 480MW by the end of 2014.

“Our module plants were fully loaded in the first quarter of this year due to demand,” noted Li. “Both Japan and Europe are driving that demand but we are also the biggest supplier of modules to the Taiwan market, which although small is still growing.”

The company also has plans expand solar cell capacity to 3GW by the end of 2015, up from 2.2GW in 2014. 

Whether the solar cell capacity expansion would be undertaken is unclear, especially given the lower utilisation rates in the first half of the year. However Li said that a 250MW expansion was undertaken in the first quarter of 2015 and a further 250MW expansion was under consideration. 

 “We did expand solar cell capacity last year, primarily through productivity and cell efficiency gains,” said Li.

The average conversion efficiency of NSP’s multicrystalline solar cells was 17.2%, 17.4% and 17.5% in 2012 and 2013 and 2014. 

NSP places a lot of emphasis on its R&D activities and solar cell quality and high-efficiencies.

“We have a large R&D department, probably bigger than other companies [in Taiwan], said Li.

Li noted that the company typically spent 3 to 5% of annual revenue on R&D activities and had 100 staff in the R&D department. 

One of the recent developments had been the development of an n-type bifacial solar cell dubbed ‘BiFi’ with an equivalent conversion efficiency of 24.5%. Li noted that a key market for this product would be car ports and a number of other niche markets. 

With the company target of US$1 billion in sales to be met in 2016, capacity expansions and launch of NSP's yieldco remain critical metrics to watch and provide an alternative strategy to combat the US anti-dumping duties, without establishing manufacturing overseas. 

Trina Solar to build 2GW factory in India - reports

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  In quarterly results in March, the company said it planned to announce overseas manufacturing with a local partner in the near future but did not give any further details. Source: Trina Solar.

Trina Solar will partner with Welspun Renewables to build a 2GW module factory in India, according to reports by Bloomberg.

The report quoted Trina’s Zhiguo Zhu saying that the plant’s output would be used to serve the US and European markets. Both have placed additional punitive trade duties on modules made in China.

The company had already announced 500MW of cell and 500MW of module production with Welspun. Details of a potential second phase alluded to by Zhu suggest that deal could now be expanded. Zhu also said that demand from India could reach 600MW this year.

The planned phased expansions, said to cost around US$500 million would not meet US ITC reductions due by the end of 2016, suggesting the majority of capacity would meet India and other regional market demand for both partners. 

Trina Solar has already announced a major PV production plant in Thailand to meet expected US demand

Trina, which has overtaken Yingli as the largest producer of solar modules, is currently at full utilitsation and could struggle to match an anticipated 4GW of demand this year. 

At the RE-Invest conference in Gujarat in February, Trina CEO Jifan Gao said the key to India meeting its 100GW goal, was attracting companies to invest and build in India.

Prime Minister Modi’s Make in India campaign has formed a high-profile part of his economic strategy.

Welspun Renewables was not available for comment at the time of press.

Additional reporting by Mark Osborne

JinkoSolar signs MOU with Andalay Solar

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  JinkoSolar will begin offering the new modules to customers in the second half of 2015. Image: JinkoSolar

PV company JinkoSolar has agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with solar power system integrator Andalay Solar, in which JinkoSolar will license and develop PV modules while utilising Andalay’s Instant Connect frame technology.

JinkoSolar is planning to offer the new modules to customers in the second half of 2015. The company will also sell a 60-cell polycrystalline solution fitted with a black Andalay frame. The new solution has already passed the UL1703 Type 1 Fire Classification.

Nigel Cockroft, general manager of JinkoSolar (U.S.), said: "We have been rapidly expanding our sales in the U.S. residential market this year, and we are very optimistic that the differentiated solution presented by the Andalay compatible modules will support our growth. With the current trend and success of rail-less mounting hardware in the residential segment, we are pleased to provide our customers with more options, such as the Andalay compatible solution, for mounting JinkoSolar modules on their roofs."

JinkoSolar is set to showcase the new modules at Intersolar North America, which will be held in San Francisco from July 14-16.

Steven Chan, president and CEO of Andalay Solar, added: “It is a huge step forward for Andalay to have JinkoSolar agree to produce Andalay compatible modules and showcase it at Intersolar North America. We believe that this will accelerate the adoption of Andalay mounting hardware as an industry standard within the U.S. residential solar market, as more of Jinko's residential solar customers sign on to the benefits of the Andalay system: faster, easier and simpler installations.”

SPI nets private placement of US$40 million

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  Vision Edge will buy US$20 million of convertible promissory note issued by SPI through the private placement. Image: SPI

PV developer Solar Power Inc. (SPI) has entered into a convertible promissory note purchase agreement and an option agreement with Vision Edge Limited relating to a new private placement of up to US$40 million.

As part of the deal, Vision Edge has agreed to buy US$20 million of convertible promissory note issued by SPI through the private placement. SPI also granted Vision Edge with an option to purchase US$20 million of SPI’s common stock over the next six months at US$2.70 per share.

SPI has noted numerous financial deals over the last few months, agreeing to a strategic partnership with Kong Sun Holdings Company earlier this month, while also raising US$50 million in private share placement in May.

SunEdison permitted to build 50MW Oahu PV plant, Hawaii sets 100% renewable target

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  Shareholders of the utility Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI) also approved a merger with US electricity producer NextEra Energy. Wikimedia: wppilot

SunEdison has been granted a special permit by the Hawaii Land Use Commission to build a 50MW solar plant within the Kawailoa Plantation on the North shore of Oahu.

The project will be co-located within the plantation’s existing 69MW wind farm on agricultural lands, a SunEdison spokesperson told PV Tech.

Furthermore, the plantation plans to continue to raise sheep around the new solar panels.

This week Hawaii became the first US state to set a goal for 100% of its electricity to come from renewable energy sources by 2045, after governor David Ige signed a bill mandating the target.

Hawaii's renewable energy use has doubled in the past five years, with the islands currently generating about 22% of their electricity from wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable energy resources.

The new law also increases an interim requirement, targeting at least 30% renewable electricity by 2020.

The SunEdison spokesperson added: “We’re pleased to receive the permit, and look forward to moving forward with the project to help Hawaii achieve its goal of having 100% renewable power.”

"Hawaii is making history, not only for the islands, but for the planet," said Jeff Mikulina, Executive Director of the Blue Planet Foundation.

In related news this week, shareholders of the utility Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI) approved a merger with US electricity producer NextEra Energy.

NextEra Energy will support HEI’s plans to triple distributed solar, including rooftop solar, and achieve a 65% renewable portfolio standard (RPS) by 2030.

Subject to approval by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC), the companies have committed to approximately US$60 million in customer savings over four years and to not request an increase in the general base electricity rate for at least four years post-transaction close.

Hawaiian Electric will continue to operate under its current name, be locally managed and remain headquartered in Honolulu.

Jeff Watanabe, HEI's chairman said: “The approval marks another significant milestone in our efforts to accelerate Hawaii's clean energy transformation by bringing the expertise and resources of NextEra Energy to our state to achieve even higher levels of renewables and lower energy costs for our customers.”