Tag Archives: SunPower

NEW ENERGY: Canadian Solar, Apple Charge Up Recurrent and SunPower

Bottom line: Major new financing for Recurrent Energy and Apple’s growing partnership with SunPower reflect technology advances that are making solar power plants increasingly competitive with traditional sources.

Recurrent wins financing for major new solar plant

Two solar power plant builders are in the headlines today, reflecting a shift that is seeing this new generation of companies take the spotlight from older solar panel makers that are desperately seeking new buyers for their products. The first headline has solar panel maker Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) announcing that its Recurrent Energy plant-building unit has secured financing for a major new US project, as Recurrent gets set for its own New York IPO as a separate company. The second story has US-based SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWR) emerging as the main partner for Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) recent ambitious plans to build solar power plants in China.

The bigger picture behind both of these stories is that plant builders like Recurrent and SunPower could emerge as the next hot tickets in the solar energy sector. That’s because these companies are quickly gaining expertise in the field of solar plant construction and operation, and could benefit from a future boom when such plants should finally become commercially competitive with plants powered by traditional fossil fuels. Read Full Post…

NEW ENERGY: Apple Polishes China Image With Solar Farms

Bottom line: Apple’s new solar power initiative in China is a highly symbolic move to curry favor with local officials, and should win the company positive public relations points at very little cost.

Apple announces China solar farms

I have to commend Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) for finally realizing it needs to improve its image in China, with word that the global tech giant is investing in 2 new solar farms to be built in interior Sichuan province. The move is actually quite masterful, as Apple is at once killing many birds with a single stone as it works to curry favor with Beijing.

The 2 new projects will contribute to China’s recent drive to produce more clean, renewable energy, which has been one of Beijing’s top priorities these last couple of years. The new farms are also being built in China’s interior, which has been a priority area for investment by Beijing leaders eager to reduce the wealth gap between interior regions and wealthier coastal areas. Last but not least, these new investments should be quite inexpensive for a company like Apple, and carry relatively small risks. Read Full Post…

News Digest: April 17, 2015

The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 17. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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  • SunPower (NYSE: SPWR), Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) To Build Solar Projects In China (English article)
  • P2P Lending Site Lufax Completes $485 Mln Fund Raising Round (Chinese article)
  • China’s Former IPO King CICC Looks for A Fresh Start (English article)
  • Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Unveils Self-developed DuWear Smartwatch OS (English article)
  • 58.com (NYSE: WUBA), Ganji Merger Deal Complete, Announcement Soon (Chinese article)

Solar: LDK Cuts, First Solar in China 中国光伏产业:几家欢喜几家愁

There’re quite a few news bits coming from the solar sector today, with more downbeat news from struggling LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) even as 2 western panel makers make important new inroads to the China market. Meantime, Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) is also getting some good news in the form of new financing from a major western commercial lender for a new solar power project in Canada.

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