Friday, October 26, 2007

ReneSola enters polysilicon supply agreement with China's Sichuan Yongxiang

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - ReneSola Ltd said it has entered into a polysilicon supply agreement with China's Sichuan Yongxiang Polysilicon Co Ltd, adding that the deal is an important step in its polysilicon procurement strategy.

Under the agreement, Yongxiang will supply a total of 3,700 tonnes of virgin polysilicon, which is sufficient for about 450MW of wafer production, over a three year period commencing in the second half of 2008.

The polysilicon will be manufactured at Yongxiang's facility in Sichuan province, China, and is expected to be fully commissioned during the second half of 2008.

Chief executive Xian Shou Li said, 'The polysilicon from Yongxiang Polysilicon will supplement the supply from our polysilicon joint venture announced at the time of the second-quarter results and our supply from other sources.'

TFN.newsdesk@thomson.com

Trina Solar Signs Long-Term Supply Agreement with Nitol Group

October 24, 2007: 08:30 AM EST

CHANGZHOU, China, Oct. 24 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Trina Solar Limited (''Trina Solar'' or the ''Company''), a leading integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaic products from the production of ingots, wafers and cells to the assembly of PV modules founded in 1997, announced today that the Company has signed a long-term silicon supply agreement with Nitol Group.

Nitol Group, a Russian chemical company based in Moscow, currently produces trichlorosilane and is constructing a polysilicon production facility. Under this five-year agreement, Nitol Group will supply Trina Solar with virgin polysilicon sufficient to produce over 200MW of modules in aggregate. While the delivery of polysilicon will start in 2009, Trina Solar will have the opportunity to purchase polysilicon in 2008 from a pool of unallocated production.

''The cooperation with Nitol will enhance our production capabilities in the coming years and further our expansion goals,'' said Jifan Gao, Trina Solar's Chairman and CEO. ''Trina Solar has a great deal of confidence in the success of Nitol's polysilicon production capabilities, as Nitol has the potential to become one of the top global manufacturers of polysilicon.''

''The Nitol team is very pleased to work with Trina Solar as a long-term partner,'' stated Dmitry Kotenko, Nitol's CEO. ''Trina Solar is one of the leaders in the PV industry due to its vertically integrated business model and its experienced management team and we intend to grow our business more rapidly with Trina Solar as a customer.''

This long-term silicon supply agreement will enhance Trina Solar's management of raw material supplies and strengthen its position as a leading global PV manufacturer. Prior to this contract, the company had secured over 60% of polysilicon requirements for its 2008 planned production.

About Trina Solar Limited

Trina Solar Limited , through its wholly-owned subsidiary Changzhou Trina Solar Energy Co. Ltd, is a well recognized manufacturer of high quality modules and has a long history as a solar PV pioneer since it was founded in 1997 as a system installation company. Trina Solar is currently one of the few PV manufactures that has developed a vertically integrated business model from the production of monocrystalline ingots, wafers and cells to the assembly of high quality modules. This integrated value chain helps to ensure that high quality products can be delivered to its end customers around the globe, including a number of European countries, such as Germany, Spain and Italy. Trina Solar's solar modules provide reliable and environmentally- friendly electric power for residential, commercial, industrial and other applications worldwide. Trina Solar successfully completed its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in December, 2006 and its ADSs are traded under the ticker symbol TSL. For further information, please visit Trina Solar's website at http://www.trinasolar.com .

About Nitol Group

Nitol Group is a Russian vertically integrated chemical company that has operated successfully since 1936. Quality certificates issued by international experts including SGS and Saybolt demonstrate Nitol's high product quality. The silicon division is specialized in production of chlorosilines and polysilicon for solar energy. Nitol's silicon production facility is located in the Irkutsk region of Russia.

Inventory allegations only paint a partial picture - LDK

By Terry Wang and James Morschel

Shanghai. October 23. INTERFAX-CHINA - Allegations of misrepresented inventory figures made by a former employee of LDK Solar Co. Ltd., a large Chinese-based solar wafer manufacturer listed in the United States, hold some truth but only paint a partial picture of the company's inventory situation, a senior official with the company told Interfax today.

The company's former financial controller, Charley Situ, publicly alleged in late September that LDK Solar had an inventory discrepancy of 250 tons of polysilicon, and that inventory quality was poor.

When LDK Solar's Executive Vice President and CFO Jack Lai spoke with Interfax today, Lai stated that the information released by Situ is "authentic and accurate, but offers only a partial picture," and described Situ as a "disgruntled employee".

Lai is quite certain that there is no problem with the company's raw material, and argued that the large wafer supply agreements it has recently signed demonstrates that production is normal.

Since Sept. 27, LDK Solar has signed agreements to supply wafers to Mosel Vitelic, Solartech Energy, Chinalight Solar, Solarfun Power and Canadian Solar. Taken together, the five agreements are valued at around $1.35 billion.

"We are supplying solar wafers to the world largest solar cell makers, and orders have already been signed for wafer deliveries in 2008 and 2009. If we really have a problem, would such companies still be relying on us for their wafer supplies?" Lai stated.

LDK Solar's first official response to the allegations came on Oct. 4, with the company releasing a statement saying that its management team and board of directors had formed an internal committee to investigate the allegations, but that no material discrepancies had been found. The company also stated that the allegations made by Situ had no merit.

At the same time, the company also asked an independent auditing firm, KPMG, to conduct a separate, independent review of its inventory.

Lai said that the audit is still being carried out, and that the company will announce the results when it is complete.

Following the allegations, LDK Solar's share price slumped considerably from a peak price of $73.95 on Sept. 27 to $37.26 on Oct. 8. Its share price did rebound when it refuted the allegations, only to fall again soon after. LDK Solar's stock closed at $35.68 last Friday.

However, the approximately 50 percent fall in the company's share price has not yet led all investment bank analysts to downgrade their ratings for the company.

Jesse W. Pichel, a clean energy analyst with Piper Jaffray, maintained his "Outperform" rating for LDK Solar in a report released on Oct. 4, and Needham & Company upgraded their rating for the company to "Strong Buy" on Oct. 10.

In addition, the company has also started construction of a polysilicon production plant in its base city of Xinyu in Jiangxi Province. The company expects that the project can attain an annual polysilicon production capacity of 6,000 tons by the end of 2008, and 15,000 tons by the end of 2009.

During the telephone interview, Lai said he is quite confident about the company's ambitious development plan. "We will make progress at a pace of 100 percent growth annually," Lai said. According to the company's plan, it will reach solar wafers production capacity of 400 megawatts by the end of this year, 800 megawatts by the end of 2008 and 1,600 megawatts by the end of 2009.

LDK Solar was incorporated in July 2005 and launched its IPO in New York in June this year. Its IPO raised $469 million in total, the most capital ever to be raised by a Chinese solar power companies in such a fashion.

As of June 30, the company had an annual solar wafer production capacity of 300 megawatts, making it the third largest supplier in the world. During the first half of this year, the company earned a net income of $53.28 million.

Suntech Opens U.S. Headquarters in San Francisco

October 23, 2007: 08:00 AM EST

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 23 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. one of the world's leading manufacturers of photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, today announced the opening of its headquarters in San Francisco. San Francisco Mayor Mr. Gavin Newsom and Suntech's Chairman and CEO, Dr. Zhengrong Shi, officially opened the new headquarters office at a press conference held at 2.30pm Pacific Time on Monday, October 22, 2007 at the San Francisco City Hall.

''The establishment of Suntech's U.S. base in San Francisco reflects the growing importance of the solar industry in San Francisco and a long-standing commitment of the City to encourage investment in renewable energy,'' said Mayor Newsom.

Dr. Zhengrong Shi, Suntech's Chairman and CEO, said: ''We are very pleased to locate our U.S. headquarters in San Francisco and thank Mayor Newsom and his team for their support. As we conducted our search for this site throughout the U.S., we were particularly impressed by the awareness of climate change issues, the quality and sophistication of the customers and partners and the high level of talent within the San Francisco Bay Area and California. In addition, we were very impressed with the progressiveness of various Bay Area city governments as demonstrated by San Francisco and Oakland with various public-private partnership initiatives to foster renewable energy. We hope to participate more meaningfully within the community in broader initiatives such as these.''

''We have already built a strong sales team across the U.S. that has expanded sales nearly sixfold between 2006 and this year,'' continued Dr. Shi. ''In direct response to customer and partner feedback, we have created a U.S. based team at this new headquarters to provide a diverse range of capabilities to both supplement our sales efforts and accelerate our U.S. business development initiatives. This expansion is also founded on our belief that the U.S. will become the largest solar market globally in coming years. In many ways, California has led that initiative having among the longest histories of PV system adoption and most recently demonstrated by the $3.3 billion California Solar Initiative.''

San Francisco is also the site of two of Suntech's key projects in the U.S. Together with its San Francisco-based partner Bass Electric, Suntech recently completed a 500kW solar system at the San Francisco International Airport's Terminal 3. In addition, Suntech collaborated with California-based Open Energy Corporation to provide a glass-on-glass building integrated PV (BIPV) solar system at the California Academy of Science which demonstrates growing traction for the company's BIPV products in the U.S. Suntech also has partnered with Bay Area company, Akeena Solar, Inc. to produce its patent- pending high performance solar panel systems.

The contact details for Suntech new U.S. headquarters are:
188 The Embarcadero, Suite 800
San Francisco, CA 94105
Tel: +1-415-882-9922
Fax: +1-415-882-9923

About Suntech

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. is a leading solar energy company in the world as measured by both production output and capacity of solar cells and modules. Suntech provides solar solutions for a green future. Suntech designs, develops, manufactures, and markets a variety of high quality, cost effective and environmentally friendly PV cells and modules for electric power applications in the residential, commercial, industrial, and public utility sectors. Suntech's majority-owned subsidiary, MSK Corporation is one of the top-ranked companies in the building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) space. Suntech's customers are located in various markets worldwide, including key markets throughout Europe, North America, Japan and China. For more information, please visit http://www.suntech-power.com .

Suntech America, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd., with responsibility for the distribution of Suntech products in the Americas. For more information about Suntech America's product offerings please contact Tel: +1-415-882-9922, Fax: +1-415-882-9923 or email: sales@suntechamerica.com.

LDK Gets $534M Deal With Canadian Solar

Oct. 22, 2007, 6:48AM
© 2007 The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Chinese manufacturer LDK Solar Co. Ltd. said Monday it signed a contract worth about $534 million to supply solar wafers to solar cell maker Canadian Solar Inc.

Under the terms of the three year deal, LDK will begin delivery of the multicrystalline wafers in 2008, with 50 megawatts worth of capacity slated for the first year.

One megawatt of electricity powers 778 households per year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

LDK, located in Xinyu City, China, valued the contract at 4 billion Chinese yuan ($533.5 million). Canadian Solar is based in Suzhou, China.