- Shares of German solar group Conergy fell more than 60 percent after it was announced that the company had filed for insolvency. Once again, cheap Chinese product has put the kibosh on a European solar players. I remain bullish in the solar sector, however, particularly for U.S. players such as SolarCity (NASDAQ:SCTY) and SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR).
- Also in solar news, GE (NYSE:GE) has announced that it will take part in a $15 million equity investment in Sungevity. Sungevity is one of the top three solar financing companies in the U.S. Expect to see more of these types of investments by major players throughout the rest of 2013 and into 2014. There’s some serious scratch to be made in this space, particularly in the U.S. Although solar manufacturers struggle with razor thin margins and a glut of product that can’t seem to go away fast enough, cheap product is making the solar financing and leasing a game a tremendously profitable one. Currently, there’s only one solar financing/leasing company that’s publicly-traded, and that’s SolarCity (NASDAQ:SCTY).
- According to a recent piece in Bloomberg, the former French Environment Minister of France, Delphine Batho was fired for supporting a ban on shale production. Overall, President Francois Hollande seems to be bullish on renewables and wishes to lower the country’s dependence on nuclear power to about 50 percent of total output by 2025. Right now it’s about 75%. I suspect he knows such a thing will be much easier to implement if the French can replicate even a small amount of the success we’ve had here with fracking in the U.S.
