Suntech vs. Sanyo - The Solar Panel Battle For Japan

 

Suntech and Sanyo, two leading manufacturers of solar panels, have been beating the corporate drums recently over their plans to increase market share in Japan.
    
Sanyo last week announced a goal of becoming the top manufacturer in the expanding Japanese solar panel market by 2013 by winning a 40% slice (in megawatts). 
   
Aside from its Japanese roots and reputation for quality, Sanyo is pinning its hopes on its HIT solar panel technology to give it an edge in the local market. The Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer (HIT) solar cell is a hybrid model that combines a crystalline silicon substrate and an amorphous silicon thin film. According to the company, it offers the world’s highest power generation level per installation area due to superior energy conversion efficiency and temperature characteristics. 
   
On the same day as Sanyo's announcement, Suntech Power Japan Corp, a unit of Suntech Power Holdings Co., announced it will begin selling solar power generation systems for new homes early next year. 
   
Suntech Japan has inked deals with around 10 midsize home builders and will have them install solar power systems when they build custom and ready-built homes. Suntech Power Holdings, based in China, is the world's third largest solar panel manufacturer in terms of production volume. Suntech solar panels are a popular choice in Australia for residential solar power systems.
   
The coming year is considered to be the Japanese solar market's salad days due to government subsidies and the New Purchase System for Solar Power-Generated Electricity, which started on November 1, 2009. The program is essentially a net feed in tariff; paying generators of electricity from solar power systems a premium rate of approximately 60c Australian per kilowatt hour for surplus electricity fed into the main grid. 
   
According to statistics from SolarBuzz, Japan was the sixth largest country market for solar photovoltaics in 2008. While the non-residential solar panel market in Japan has been growing it still only represents just over 10% of the Japanese domestic PV market.

Germany Faces Solar Power Component Shortage

 

The solar energy industry will invest nearly 10 billion euros in Germany over the next four years according to research conducted on behalf of the Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft (BSW-Solar), the German Solar Industry Association. 
  
Germany’s solar power industry will  route 14 percent of its turnover in additional expansion. The investment rate in the conventional German energy industry is only half that at 7 percent. In 2009 alone, investment of approximately 1.5 billion euros was ploughed into the German photovoltaic industry to expand projects.
   
The industry will invest a billion euros in research and development by 2013, the goal being to make solar electricity competitive with conventional electricity within a few years. For residential solar power system owners, the costs of electricity from their own roof tops will fall below the tariff level of conventional electricity providers by 2015, at the latest, according to estimations.
   
Coupled with Germany's feed in tariff program, one of the most generous in the world, demand for home solar power systems in recent weeks has grown enormously due to significant price reductions. Demand has been such that the threat of a solar panel and power inverter shortage looms large and local manufacturers have orders for equipment backlogged well into 2010. 
   
The German photovoltaic industry current employs around 54,000 people. In excess of 10,000 new jobs in manufacturing, commerce and trade were created in 2008 alone. The industrial turnover amounted to some 9.5 billion euros last year, growing by nearly 60 percent over 2007. The export rate is approximately 50 percent.
   
The Australian state of New South Wales recently announced a revamp of its Solar Bonus Scheme; switching to a German style gross feed in tariff that will pay AUD 60 cents per kilowatt hour for all electricity generated by a solar power system. While the legislation is yet to pass, interest in New South Wales in solar power has skyrocketed since the announcement, echoing the example set by Germany that a gross feed in tariff is one of the best ways to stimulate solar power uptake.
   

News for Friday 27 November, 2009

 

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