SEIA

New Competitive Landscape for Solar?

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The excitement over solar power, which once attracted billions in private investment and public subsidies, has waned recently, underscoring the limitations of renewable energies and the unchallenged dominance of fossil fuels.

Some of the $75 billion sector’s high profile names have fallen on hard times recently – most notably Suntech Power. The China-based solar panel company rattled the industry when it filed for bankruptcy last week. In its heyday, the stock traded just shy of $90 and had a market capitalization of $16 billion: on Thursday, the last day U.S. markets were open, the shares traded around for 42 cents each. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 1, 2013 at 12:50 PM

Why Solar Power International Matters

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This week the solar world descends on Orlando, Florida for the 2012 Solar Power International (SPI) conference.

For three days, an estimated 25,000 solar industry professionals will promote their products, make connections, and learn from their colleagues about the latest thinking and design. This year, more than any other, the theme of this conference will be project finance; how deals are getting done and who is doing them are the largest questions facing the industry in the post-1603 cash grant world. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 10, 2012 at 9:40 AM

Wall Street Bank Backs Residential Solar Fund

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The burgeoning US market for leased residential solar systems got some extra help on Thursday with the launch of a new fund to increase financing options for solar installers and their customers.

The fund, named MySolar, was created by Clean Power Finance, an online marketplace for solar financing; MS Solar Solutions Corp, a unit of the investment bank Morgan Stanley, and Main Street Power Company, a developer of solar systems and provider of power-purchase agreements. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 4, 2012 at 8:00 AM

Solar Makes Case For 1603 Grant Extension

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The leading U.S. solar-industry lobbying group says a tax provision that expires at the end of this year will create some 37,000 additional jobs in 2012 if it is extended by Congress. And if it’s not? In a press conference, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) chief Rhone Resch said killing the Section 1603 Treasury Program “would essentially amount to a massive tax increase … that would reduce jobs significantly.”

The 1603 provision allows renewable energy developers to receive a grant for up to 30 percent of the cost of a project, once it goes online, in lieu of claiming an energy tax credit. The grant option was instituted for two years in 2009, as the financial crisis froze up tax equity markets. After heavy lobbying late last year it was extended through the end of this year. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 18, 2011 at 10:30 AM
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