Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Solarfun Appoints New CFO

From http://www.tradingmarkets.com

Tuesday, October 09, 2007; Posted: 06:20 AM

SHANGHAI, Oct 09, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- SOLF charts news PowerRating -- Solarfun Power Holdings Co., Ltd. ( "Solarfun" ) (NASDAQ: SOLF ), an established manufacturer of both photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules in China, today announced that Ms. Amy Liu will assume the role of Chief Financial Officer on October 31, 2007, replacing the outgoing Kevin Wei, whose employment contract expires on the same date. She joins Solarfun from Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., a New York Stock Exchange-listed scientific instrument maker, where she was VP - Director of Finance - China and Hong Kong. Ms. Liu will join Solarfun on October 18, 2007 in order to coordinate with Mr. Wei and ensure a smooth transition to her new position.

Ms. Liu brings a broad background in operations and finance with large multi-national companies and has spent considerable time working in China-based operations. Her experience includes roles in finance, manufacturing, logistics, sourcing, business development and mergers and acquisitions. Ms. Liu holds an MBA and a BA in Economics, and she is a Certified Accountant in China. Prior to her tenure at Thermo Fisher Scientific, she was a Finance Manager in several different business units of DuPont, including Herberts, the coatings subsidiary of Hoechst, which was acquired by DuPont in 1998.

Chairman Lu Yonghua commented that "Solarfun is extremely pleased to have attracted such a high-caliber finance executive with broad international experience, particularly in Asia. We believe Ms. Liu will be an important member of our management team and contribute greatly to the growth of our company."

At the end of September, Xihong Deng also resigned from her position as a member of Solarfun's Board of Directors.

Chairman Lu continued, "I would also like to thank Kevin Wei as well as Board member Xihong Deng for their many contributions to Solarfun in its formative years. Kevin played a leading role in our public offering process and in building our finance team. Xihong was an early investor in Solarfun through her position as Managing Director of Hony Capital, Ltd., and she was a leading member of our international development efforts during her secondment to our company. I am confident that we have the senior management team to take this company to the next level and professionally keep pace with our growth and expansion plans."

About Solarfun

Solarfun Power Holdings Co, Ltd. manufactures both PV cells and PV modules, provides PV cell processing services to convert silicon wafers into PV cells, and supplies solar system integration services in China. Solarfun produces both monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon cells and modules, and manufactures 100% of its modules with in-house produced PV cells. Solarfun sells its products both through third-party distributors, OEM manufacturers and directly to system integrators. Solarfun was founded in 2004 and its products have been certified to TUV and UL safety and quality standards. SOLF-G
http://www.solarfun.com.cn

Canadian Solar and Ra Solar Espana Complete a 2.8MW Solar Farm Project in Spain

From http://money.cnn.com

October 09, 2007: 08:46 AM EST

JIANGSU, China, Oct. 9 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Canadian Solar Inc. ("the Company,'' ''CSI,'' or ''we'') and Ra Solar Espana today held the official opening of a 2.8MW solar farm project in Albacore, Spain. The ceremony was attended by dignitaries including the Dutch ambassador and the Director of Industry of Castilla la Mancha.

The solar park, one of the largest photovoltaic plants in Spain, is expected to supply enough energy for 1,500 families.

CSI is the sole supplier of the solar modules in this project, which consists of almost 18,000 CS5A solar panels, mounted on a fixed structure and connected to 100 kW inverters. Ra Solar Espana is the main party behind the development of this 2.8 MW plant in the areas of project management, material procurement, project promotion and financing arrangement.

Linda Goossens, General Manager for Ra Solar Espana commented: ''CSI has been a reliable partner, especially with regards to delivery times and after sales services, which are crucial elements in projects of this size. At the same time, we are very pleased with the high quality of CSI modules. We have already placed further orders for CSI's solar modules for our future projects and look forward to working closely with CSI in future.''

Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar Inc. commented: ''We are very pleased to be able to work together with Ra Solar on this important project. RA Solar is one of the leading, most reputable developers of large- scale solar farm projects in Spain and we are pleased to have been chosen as its partner. CSI has a strong reputation globally for being able to complete deliveries and installations for projects of large scale on time. The consistency and high performance of our modules have also differentiated CSI from our competitors in Spain. Spain is one of the fastest growing solar markets in the world for large-scale ground-mounted solar farms. We expect these large scale solar projects will continue to be a strong growth area for our business.''

About Canadian Solar Inc.

Founded in 2001, Canadian Solar Inc. (CSI) is a vertically integrated manufacturer of solar cell, solar module and custom-designed solar application products serving worldwide customers. CSI is incorporated in Canada and conducts all of its manufacturing operations in China. Backed by years of experience and knowledge in the solar power market and the silicon industry, CSI has become a major global provider of solar power products for a wide range of applications. For more information, please visit http://www.csisolar.com .

About Ra Solar Espana

Ra Solar Espana, based in Madrid, and with partners in the Netherlands, is a complete system supplier. It started more than a year ago with the project management of solar farms. It currently has the project management and supply of materials of 6 other parks of over 1, 5 MW each, which all will be finished under the existing RD. For more information, please visit: http://www.ra-solar.com .

LDK Steps Up 3Q Guidance

From http://www.greentechmedia.com

In response to allegations of inventory discrepancies, the company reports its revenues were better than expected.
by: Jennifer Kho
October 9, 2007

LDK Solar upped its revenue guidance Tuesday in response to allegations of discrepancies in its silicon inventory reporting.

The Xinyu City, China,-based company (NYSE: LDK) said revenue for the third quarter would be between $140 million and $150 million. It previously had given a range of $115 million to $125 million.

Either set of revenue numbers would have represented growth from the $73.4 million in sales LDK reported in the first quarter, the last quarter reflected in the company's prospectus before LDK went public in May.

As we previously indicated, we believe that there is no merit in the allegations made about our inventory accounting practices, our business operations are normal and we continue making shipments to fulfill our customers' orders," CEO Xiaofeng Peng said in a statement.

The company faces allegations from Charley Situ, a former financial controller at LDK, of inconsistencies in the company's silicon inventory (see LDK Says Inventory Discrepancy Allegations Have 'No Merit'). The company denied any wrongdoing, but said it does count materials that some consider unusable, expecting to be able to use them someday (see New Details Surface as LDK's Stock Continues to Plunge).

Shareholders were clearly happy with the company's new revenue figures.

LDK shares rose 23.9 percent to $46.46 per share Monday after a 51.45 percent free fall from a peak of $76.75 per share on Sept. 27.

"Indeed [the stock] had room to climb after the recent knockdown," said Robert Wilder, CEO of WilderShares, which manages three energy indices.

But analysts said strong third-quarter revenue has little to do with the inventory allegations.
"Their inventory wouldn't impact their revenue numbers, but it might impact their margins," said Travis Bradford, president of the Prometheus Institute, which is a Greentech Media Research partner. "Volumes are growing, so revenue numbers are going to look really good, but [margins are] really important to the trajectory of profitability."

Bradford said the stock gain, just like the previous stock fall, says as much about the state of the market as a whole as it does about one company's issues.

"These companies have grown so fast that it's the usual iceberg theory - if there's one problem like this that you can see, how many are below the surface that you can't?" he said. "That's where I think a lot of this anxiety has come from."

Investors also might think 50 percent was too low for the stock to drop based on a single news item, he said.

"Really, this has to do more with speculation than with real market fundamentals," he said. "This is what a frothy market is all about."

Wilder said the stock's bounce upward shows that investors are still hungry for solar stocks.
Just four years ago, he was "grasping" to find large-enough solar companies while trying to put together his first clean-energy index. Now, these solar companies have market caps in the billions, he said.

"You could say investors simply have an appetite today for solar that allows them to say, despite a high PE ratio - a speculative ratio - these stocks are going to make money ahead," he said.

Still, investors are notoriously fickle.

While they like LDK today, many are anxiously waiting a report based on an independent audit expected to come out soon.

Whatever the result, good or bad, it's sure to have another heavy impact on trading.

China Sunergy inks polysilicon supply agreement with Zhonggui

From http://www.smallcapinvestor.com

Jennifer Schonberger Oct 09, 2007 12:33pm EDT

Chinese solar cell manufacturer China Sunergy Co., Ltd. said today that Luoyang Zhonggui High-tech Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese polysilicon manufacturing company, will supply China Sunergy with approximately 106 metric tons (MT) of high-quality virgin solar-grade multicrystalline polysilicon for 2007 and 2008.

Under the agreement, a total of 60MT and 46MT of solar-grade multicrystalline polysilicon will be shipped to China Sunergy in 2007 and 2008, respectively. The contracted volumes will support approximately 13 megawatts of production for China Sunergy during the contractual term, which primarily covers the period of September 2007 to March 2008. Pricing is on a fixed basis for the duration of the agreement.

In addition to the supply contract, China Sunergy said it also took delivery of a printing machine made by solar equipment manufacturing company, Baccini S.P.A. The company said it hopes to produce approximately three megawatts of high efficiency selective emitter cells during the fourth quarter of 2007 using the new machine.

China Sunergy said the purchase of the machine is "a solid step towards large scale commercial production of high efficiency cells."

Shares of China Sunergy popped 18.64%, or $1.88, to $11.96 at 12:17 p.m. ET. Shares of China Sunergy have been trading in the range of $ 4.83 to $16.50 for the past 52 weeks.