by Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
The solar technology industry may report a stronger-than-expected third quarter but could face disappointment in subsequent quarters, warns Hapoalim Securities analyst Gordon Johnson in a note to clients today. Johnson says that his checks suggest demand for photovoltaic modules in Germany has been better than expected, raising the prospect that solar tech makers could demonstrate better sales growth and margins than expiated when they report the September quarter.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
It’s a nice day for the solar sector, which is getting a boost from a flurry of analyst comments following the recently completed Intersolar trade show in Munich.
“By the end of Intersolar, we sensed growing, albeit cautious optimism,” Cowen’s Robert Stone writes in a research note this morning.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Applied Materials is likely to provide mixed news when it reports results after the close tomorrow for its fiscal second quarter ended April. The Street is looking for revenue of $904 million and a loss of 10 cents a share; the thinking on the July quarter is $923 million and a loss of 8 cents.
The Street is having increasing doubts about whether the solar equipment business at Applied Materials can ever live up to the unit’s once lofty expectations.
Filthy coal-fired power plants spew carbon into the air. A mish-mash of 9,200 generators streams vital electrons along 300,000 miles of aging, inefficient transmission lines and one untrimmed tree in the wrong place could plunge a quarter of the country into darkness. This is our electric grid.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Gabelli & Co. analyst John Segrich notes that Suntech–which has emerged as the largest Chinese solar module manufacturer–is likely to underperform as the rapid deterioration of pricing and demand in the solar market continues amid the sharp economic downturn.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Suntech shares are trading dramatically lower–and dragging down the rest of the already battered solar sector–on an extremely weak outlook for Q4 results.
For Q3, the company posted revenue of $594.4 million and non-GAAP profits of 36 cents a share. That beat the Street estimate of $571.7 million at the top line, but fell short of Street estimate of 42 cents at the bottom line.
by Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Shares of solar power technology provider Trina Solar (TSL) fell as much as 5.4 percent today after the company this morning announced sales and profit that missed estimates despite a big jump in sales and profit, year-over-year.
by John Murrell, Blogger, Good Morning Silicon Valley
It’s difficult for us layfolk to gauge the real implications of breakthrough research announcements, but when the scientists start throwing around words like “nirvana,” it does catch the attention. And from the description of the latest work of MIT’s Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy, it’s easy to get excited. Nocera and team [...]
by Therese Poletti, Senior Columnist, MarketWatch, Tech Tales
As companies like Intel Corp., IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. have made moves in the solar power space, many have wondered if these high-tech heavyweights could use either their manufacturing or intellectual muscle to push down costs and thereby lower the price of solar power. Perhaps eventually, but not quite so fast.
by Joseph Romm, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
One of oldest forms of energy used by humans–sunlight concentrated by mirrors–is poised to make an astonishing comeback. I believe it will be the most important form of carbon-free power in the 21st century. That’s because it’s the only form of clean electricity that can meet all the demanding requirements of this century.
Israel’s growing solar industry, early moves on electric vehicles (the home to Shai Agassi’s first electric-vehicle infrastructure project) and recently funded water start-ups are making the state one of the front-runners of the cleantech revolution. And Israel keeps churning out new solar start-ups; on Monday a solar photovoltaic company called Pythagoras Solar said it had raised a Series A round of $10 million.
British Telecom made a major bet on renewable energy last October, saying it planned to invest close to half a billion dollars in wind farms to meet 25% of the company’s U.K. power needs by 2016. Now BT’s clean energy goals are crossing the pond, to its U.S. headquarters. The company said today at a press conference in El Segundo, Calif., where company executives, Prince Andrew Duke of York and the mayor of El Segundo spoke, that it’s building a 500-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system for its North American HQ.
This is a section of the All Things Digital Web site featuring posts from around the Web, from other Dow Jones properties and also original pieces we solicit. The section is now explicitly labeled that it comes "from other Web sites."
We are fully aware of the controversies around how linking and aggregating is done on the Web and we, in no way, are attempting to "scrape" original content created by others. Instead, regarding third-party posts, we are trying to point readers of this site to other posts from around the Web that we admire and are trying to do so in the quickest manner possible.
The Internet is full of terrific content that is not ours and we want to help our readers find it by making editorial suggestions--Look, Mom, no algorithm!--of posts we think are worth their time.
That is why we have made even more changes to Voices to ensure we do this in the most transparent and timely way. While we don't expect that everyone will agree with our policies, we have made changes that reflect our intent in pointing to content outside our site.
Because the site is wholly owned by Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, we aim to adhere to the journalistic standards of the best of the mainstream media. But, because it is run autonomously as a small online startup, we aim to exhibit the fresh thinking and nimbleness of the best of the new media. We want to be first, and sassy, but also well sourced and accurate. We will offer lots of opinion and analysis, but plenty of fact as well.
