Tag:

REC

REC Now #3 In US Residential Solar Market

by James Ayre September 6, 2015

The Norwegian company REC Group is now the third-biggest solar photovoltaic (PV) module supplier in the US residential market, according to recent reports.

This follows a 5-fold increase in market share over the last year — following the imposition in the US of duties on Chinese solar PV providers. The company is reportedly expecting that its market share will continue increasing notably over the rest of 2015.

The company — which utilizes vertically integrated PV manufacturing facilities in Singapore — currently possesses a ~14% market share (up from a 2.7% market-share in Q1 2014). The company is also the top solar PV supplier in the Californian market, which makes sense considering the direct shipping routes from Singapore.

“(The trade rulings) certainly did not have a negative impact on our business,” stated REC Senior VP and Managing Director Arndt Lutz in a recent interview. “It opened the door for some of our customers that we were working with.” (You might say it was about “picking winners and losers,” of which Chinese companies were the losers.)

While some of the top solar leasing/sales companies in the US (SolarCity, Sunrun) are customers of REC, the company’s customer base is apparently much more diverse.

“We know all the big solar residential installers and have worked with them,” stated Lutz.

The company’s relatively new TwinPeak offering shows that part of the recent success has been down to technological changes as well — as the offering was a winner of the recent Intersolar Award in the Photovoltaics category. It offers 15–20 watts of generation capacity more than most similarly priced multi-crystalline modules.

According to Lutz, the aim is for TwinPeak to comprise roughly half of the company’s offerings into the US residential market for the time being. As of the second quarter of 2015, around 50% of the company’s business is now in the US.

Regardless of REC’s ability to capitalize on the recent tariff imposition, the two top companies in the US residential market are still Chinese ones — Canadian Solar and Trina Solar.

September 6, 2015 0 comment

Market Research PV Solar Modules Solar PV Manufacturing Solar Records Solar Research Thin Film Solar

Top Solar Module Manufacturers of 2013

by James Ayre May 14, 2014

written by James Ayre

The top 15 solar PV module manufacturers of 2013 have been revealed thanks to a new report from the market research firm IHS.

As many would no doubt guess, the list is dominated — yet again — by firms based in China. But, interestingly, the Japanese firms Sharp and Kyocera saw a bit of a resurgence — up a fair bit from previous years. Japan’s strong feed-in tariffs for solar and Japanese preference for Japan-made products was clearly part of this upswing.

Some other things to note — Yingli Green Energy (aka Yingli Solar) once again took the top spot; 7 out of the top 10 companies were based in China; and the total Chinese share of the market fell 1% to 58% — down from a 59% market share in 2012.

“The year 2013 marked the turnaround of global PV markets and the recovery of leading players in the photovoltaic industry,” stated Jessica Jin, an analyst for solar supply chains at IHS. “Chinese and Japanese PV module suppliers benefited from the surge in demand in their domestic markets, with China in particular accounting for more than a quarter of global installations in 2013 and becoming the leading region in the process.”

IHS provides more:

The Chinese as a group continued to be the star players of the global PV market, but there were also signs pointing to slower growth. While they continue to lead by far, 2013 also marks the second time their overall market share has not risen significantly. Chinese suppliers held a 57% share in 2011, 59% in 2012 and 58% last year.

European companies also maintained stable share in 2013 at 13% — nearly unchanged from 2011 and 2012. In contrast, the Japanese module industry enjoyed an increase to 15%, up from 12% in 2011. Meanwhile, US suppliers fell behind as their portion dropped to 9%, down from 13% in 2011.

While Sharp and Kyocera saw the most substantial rises, a third Japanese firm managed to rank in the top 15 as well, CIS thin-film producer Solar Frontier. Solar Frontier saw shipment growth of more than 60% in 2013.

The IHS report also noted that total global solar PV shipments hit 38.7 GW in 2013 — roughly a 24% increase over the previous year. Interestingly, much of the growth appeared to be from the top players — showing clearly the consolidation of the industry. The top 15 manufacturers held a 59% market share in 2013, up from 51% in 2012.

With regard to the continued consolidation of the solar PV manufacturing industry, that’s something that’s likely going to continue for some time — with the dropping of state-support, in many cases, being one of the main drivers.

That’s exactly what’s happening right now in China, with a recent order by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology doing a lot to “clean up” the industry — likely finishing off over 75% of the country’s solar panel and related component manufacturers.

Expect to see more of that in the near-future. And just note, this isn’t bad — it’s a natural part of a maturing industry.

May 14, 2014 0 comment

BIPV Market Research PV Science Solar Modules Solar PV Manufacturing Solar Research Thin Film Solar

How Toxic Are Solar Panels? Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition Solar Scorecard 2013

by Zach August 13, 2013

written by Zach

The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) moments ago released its annual Solar Scorecard. I had the opportunity to talk with Sheila Davis, Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, last week in advance of the official release. Below are some key notes from the official release and from my chat with Sheila.

Unfortunately, one of the main general findings from the latest SVTC study is that “most of the solar industry’s environmental practices remain hidden from the public.” If you’re not familiar with the SVTC Solar Scorecard, that openness has been a major focus up until now.

Solar farm in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Photo Credit: Marika Krakowiak / Solar Love

2013 Solar Scorecard Results

“The SVTC Solar Scorecard ranks manufacturers of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules according to a range of environmental, sustainability and social justice factors. In its fourth year of requesting environmental information from solar companies, SVTC is concerned: only ten companies representing 34.6 percent of the PV module market share responded to the 2013 SVTC survey and more than 25 percent of the top 40 solar companies fail to make almost any environmental information publicly available on their websites.” (Emphasis added.)

Not a great response and not great openness from the solar PV industry. Sheila emphasized on that call that, even if the companies chose not to respond to the survey, they should have some basic information about their solar practices on their websites. I’d agree, and it’s disappointing to find out that many of them aren’t doing so, including some major players.

Here are some more interesting (if depressing) statistics from this year’s survey:

Three of the top 40 PV manufacturers (REC, SolarWorld, Yingli) share with the public extensive chemical emissions disclosure and reporting.
Twelve of the top 40 PV manufacturers post annual hazardous chemical reduction targets on their websites or in sustainability reports.
The number of companies with fully funded Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes in the PV industry dropped from one to zero. First Solar, the only major company with a fully-funded EPR program for the last three years, has eliminated its EPR program in most of its US-based sales.
Trina Solar (77), Yingli (75), and SunPower (69), earned overall top scores for 2013. SolarWorld and REC earned the highest scores for sharing information about their emissions with the public.

Additionally, Sheila noted that leading solar manufacturers JA Solar, Jinko Solar, and Hanwha SolarOne didn’t reveal any information regarding their environmental or social practices. Furthermore, these companies scored in single digits (from a possible 100 points). That means that SVTC’s researchers couldn’t find the answers on the companies’ websites to almost any of the environmental questions from its Scorecard questionnaire. Pretty lame….

Sheila was clear on the call that she sees solar as one of the key solutions to our various environmental crises (such as global warming). However, being “green companies” by nature, these solar manufacturers should also be leading in other environmental and social ways, and they should be open about the environmental and social effects they are having. Clearly, this isn’t the story.

August 13, 2013 1 comment

Market Research Solar Modules Solar PV Manufacturing Solar Research

10 Top Solar Module Manufacturers In 2012 (IHS Report)

by Zach April 13, 2013

written by Zach

Market research firm IHS has released a report on the top solar module manufacturers of 2012. Regular readers may think this sounds familiar. If so, it’s probably because you’re remembering the Solarbuzz report on the top solar module manufacturers of 2012 that we reported on in March. For the most part, the IHS report agrees with the Solarbuzz report’s top 10 list. However, there are some differences.

As with Solarbuzz, IHS reports that the top 2 solar module manufacturers of 2012 were Yingli (#1) and First Solar (#2). However, in the Solarbuzz report, Suntech came in at #3, while it came in at #5 in the IHS one. Compared to the Solarbuzz report, Trina Solar climbs from #4 to #3, while Canadian Solar climbs from #5 to #4.

Sharp Solar is #6 on both lists, Jinko Solar is #7, and Hanwha SolarOne is #10. However, Solarbuzz had JA Solar at #8 and SunPower at #9, while IHS has SunPower at #8 and REC Solar at #9.

For the rest of this article, I’ll just delve further into the IHS report.

Solar Power World had a good summary of the key movements in the top 10:

“In a year that proved very challenging for the entire PV industry, Yingli managed to increase its merchant shipment volumes by 43 percent year-over-year to leapfrog Suntech as well as U.S.-based First Solar, the two largest suppliers of 2011. First Solar managed to defend its position as the No. 2 module manufacturer, while Suntech lost significant ground and was displaced to fifth position behind Trina Solar and Canadian Solar. REC, the only Top 10 supplier headquartered in Europe, grew faster than most of its Chinese competitors in 2012. Increasing its module shipments by 31 percent year-over-year to 757 megawatts (MW), REC strengthened its position as a leading player in a highly competitive environment.”

I would think that more of the manufacturers not in the top 10 would have fallen by the wayside in 2012, but according to IHS, the top 10 in 2012 accounted for 40% of market share, while the top 10 in 2011 accounted for 46% of market share. IHS reports that the companies that took market share from the top 10 were other large manufacturers that had scaled up operations despite the global solar module oversupply and diving solar module prices.

Also, Japanese module manufacturers benefited from the solar boom resulting from the country’s aggressive feed-in tariffs, as well as the country’s strong preference for Japanese-made products (especially when it comes to technology).

“Japanese suppliers Solar Frontier and Kyocera expanded output and shipments massively in 2012, and both benefited from the current boom in Japan,” Stefan de Haan, principal analyst for solar at IHS, said. “Solar Frontier climbed from No. 14 in 2011 to 11th place in 2012, while Kyocera rose from No. 17 to No. 12.”

April 13, 2013 3 comments

Science Solar Modules Solar PV Manufacturing Solar Records Solar Research

SunPower Tops Solar Module Yield Test (Ranks #1, #2, And #3)

by Zach March 26, 2013

written by Zach

Photo Credit: SunPower

US-based solar module company SunPower has apparently taken the first, second, and third spot in PHOTON International’s 2012 solar module yield test.

PV-Tech writes:

The company’s SPR-327NE-WHT-D module came in first place with an annual yield of 1,144.1kWh per kW. The performance ratio estimates 95.2% according to a theoretical approach of 1,202 kWh per kW output.

Two of the company’s other modules achieved performance ratio values of 94.9 and 94.8% respectively.

Chinese manufacturer Seraphim Solar System ranked fourth place with its SRP-220-6PB module, with a performance ratio of 93.6%.

Last year’s winner was the REC230AE module made by the Norwegian manufacturer Renewable Energy while this year the module came in 27th out of 151 modules tested.

REC’s module performance ratio has increased from 90.8% in 2011 to 91.4% in 2012 due to favourable weather conditions.

Overall, efficiency of solar modules seems to be improving. In 2012, 109 different modules tested better than in 2011. 72 solar module models received a performance ration over 90%.

March 26, 2013 0 comment