Are you ready to do your own research? At this point, I don't believe anybody! And no, I'm not really paranoid, I just have run into crooks, aggressive business strategists too often to believe that anyone has the public good at heart. "Eternal vigilence..." it still applies.
With solar electricity generating
more than one terawatt-hour (one billion kilowatt hours) of
electricity in the United States in 2010 and continuing to
expand rapidly, the key question is, "How can companies best
capture value as the industry grows?", said Michael
Rogol, global PV analyst and CEO of Boston-based PHOTON
Consulting.
Solar business opportunities in installation, financing and related services
"The U.S. solar power sector is very profitable, but value
is migrating from companies that manufacture toward
companies that provide installation, financing and other
services. As profit migrates, solar companies and utilities
have at least seven models to capture value," said Rogol,
during his presentation at the 2010 Solar Terawatt-hours
Conference Series in San
Francisco.
Models to capture value in Solar Business Opportunities
Value Creation with Solar Energy
Strong value creation, including being low cost suppliers, agile traders, value-added service providers, system developers and bundlers of solar power with other technologies. For traditional electricity companies, the biggest challenge, Rogol noted, is to adjust their traditional businesses to create value from solar electricity.
Rogol showed how Solar Business Opportunities focusing on lower module prices are enabling swift
growth in the North American solar market and how, as this
occurs, profit within the sector is shifting downstream. The
key to success, according to Rogol, is a strong, profitable
business model capable of "unlocking value." He provided
several key examples of strategies for strong value
creation, including being
For
traditional electricity companies, the biggest challenge, he
noted, is to adjust their traditional businesses to create
value from solar electricity.
Solar consultants model company, geographic and industry projections from the outside-in, cross checking company announcements with providers and buyers. Photon PV data consists of historical and five-year forward projections for price, volume, revenue, cost, operating profit, operating margin and demand for c-Si and thin film technologies.
"This is not the dot-com boom with easy access to capital. Alternative
energy companies need to build profitable businesses largely on
their own. To do this requires detailed understanding of
changing solar power market dynamics and how the electricity
sector is evolving across North America," said Rogol.
Electricity
is becoming the energy source of choice for a greener economy because
it is possible to generate and transport electricity without the
greenhouse gas residuals of petroleum and coal based generation
feedstocks.
To support companies as they assess strategic moves in solar
power, PHOTON Consulting publishes three in-depth business
research reports each year focused on
PHOTON Consulting's research reports
provide solar companies at every step of the supply chain
with the tools to make fact-based decisions in terms of
price, volume and strategy.
PHOTON Consulting is the largest dedicated solar energy research consultancy and is a leading supplier of in-depth research, management and strategic consulting services specific to the PV sector. With the deepest, broadest integrated coverage, PHOTON Consulting tracks the solar energy sector from feedstock to factory gate to end customer in every active and emerging market.
PHOTON Consulting is a robust source for research and analysis in solar power based on extensive research and data in the sector. For more information on PHOTON Consulting, visit the Company's website: http://www.photonconsulting.com.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a milestone in
U.S.-Israel cooperation on clean energy technology.
With financial support of DOE and the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructures, the bilateral BIRD Foundation Energy Executive Committee has competitively selected four cooperative clean energy projects in the United States and Israel. This initiative will award up to $3.3 million in U.S.-Israel funding for these four projects.
The four projects selected for award help address critical shared bilateral energy-related goals, while focusing on commercializing DOE technologies. The BIRD Foundation will assist by attracting and incorporating private sector cost-sharing.
The four projects will leverage private sector cost-share for a total project value of $11.6 million:
The projects are expected to begin in 2010.
The BIRD (Binational Industrial Research and Development) Foundation works to encourage cooperation between Israeli and American companies in the various areas of technology, and provides assistance in locating strategic partners from both countries for developing joint products.
During its 32 years, the BIRD Foundation has invested in more than 800 projects, which have yielded direct and indirect revenues of about $8 billion.
The BIRD Foundation supports projects without receiving any rights in the participating companies or in the project itself. The financial assistance is repaid as royalties from sales. The Foundation provides support of up to 50% of a project's budget, beginning with R&D and ending with the initial stages of sales and marketing. The Foundation shares the risk and does not demand that the investment be repaid if the project fails to reach the sales stage.