Nanjing, (ANTARA News/Xinhua-PRNewswire-AsiaNet) - China Sunergy Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: CSUN), a specialized solar cell manufacturer based in Nanjing, China, announced today that it has taken further steps to commercialize the production of its selective emitter cells. Selective emitter cells are an improved version of the P-type solar cells currently produced by most solar cell manufacturers.
Following extensive research and development, the Company has been able to achieve small-scale commercial production of its selective emitter cells and also deliver average conversion efficiency rate that has been well above 17 per cent.
Following these promising pilot production runs, China Sunergy is confident that it remains on track to achieve full scale commercial production of selective emitter cells in the second half of 2007.
As part of the move towards full commercial production of selective emitter cells, the Company has already placed an order with Italian based equipment manufacturer Baccini S.P.A. to purchase a printing machine that will allow it to conduct more scalable commercial production runs of these high-efficiency cells in the second half of the year.
The printing machine and other ancillary equipment are expected to arrive in late June and the installation and trial run to be completed sometime in July this year.
Commenting on the development, Lu Tingxiu, Chairman and CEO of China Sunergy said: "The commercialization of our selective emitter cells remains on track and I am pleased with the results our research and development team has achieved.
China Sunergy will continue to focus on developing the technologies required to produce highly-efficiency solar cells and on being an industry leader in this important part of the solar value chain."
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Japan cedes solar power lead to Germany; China closing gap
Kyodo News
Germany's solar power output was about twice that of Japan in 2006, according to a recent study conducted by a research organization.
Japan had long been a forerunner in solar power. But in 2005, Germany unseated Japan as the world's largest solar power generating country and the gap in output between the two is widening, according to the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies.
The results of the study by ISEP also suggests Japanese companies, which still control about 50 percent of the world's production of solar power generators, are facing increasingly tough competition from German and Chinese manufacturers.
"Japan's solar power generation will further fall behind other countries if we don't drastically review current energy policies," said Tetsunari Iida, executive director of the nonprofit research body.
Germany's output stood at 3.06 million kilowatts at the end of 2006, increasing by 1.15 million kw from the previous year, ISEP said.
In contrast, Japanese output last year grew by only 250,000 kw, or less than one-fourth of the growth in Germany, to total 1.67 million kw, the research body said.
Sharp Corp. is the world's top maker of solar power generators, with a 30 percent market share. But it did not see much of an increase in production volume from 2005 to 2006, while German and Chinese rivals showed a rapid expansion during the same period, ISEP said.
ISEP's Iida said the Japanese law requiring power firms to generate a certain amount of electricity by using new energy is not functioning.
In fiscal 1994, the government introduced subsidies for individuals purchasing solar power units. This helped the country become and stay the leading solar power country. But in fiscal 2005, the subsidies ended.
Germany's solar power output was about twice that of Japan in 2006, according to a recent study conducted by a research organization.
Japan had long been a forerunner in solar power. But in 2005, Germany unseated Japan as the world's largest solar power generating country and the gap in output between the two is widening, according to the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies.
The results of the study by ISEP also suggests Japanese companies, which still control about 50 percent of the world's production of solar power generators, are facing increasingly tough competition from German and Chinese manufacturers.
"Japan's solar power generation will further fall behind other countries if we don't drastically review current energy policies," said Tetsunari Iida, executive director of the nonprofit research body.
Germany's output stood at 3.06 million kilowatts at the end of 2006, increasing by 1.15 million kw from the previous year, ISEP said.
In contrast, Japanese output last year grew by only 250,000 kw, or less than one-fourth of the growth in Germany, to total 1.67 million kw, the research body said.
Sharp Corp. is the world's top maker of solar power generators, with a 30 percent market share. But it did not see much of an increase in production volume from 2005 to 2006, while German and Chinese rivals showed a rapid expansion during the same period, ISEP said.
ISEP's Iida said the Japanese law requiring power firms to generate a certain amount of electricity by using new energy is not functioning.
In fiscal 1994, the government introduced subsidies for individuals purchasing solar power units. This helped the country become and stay the leading solar power country. But in fiscal 2005, the subsidies ended.
AU alumnus to preside at opening of plant in China
6/19/07
Dr. Joel Moskowitz, a 1961 graduate of Alfred University, long-time member of its Board of Trustees, and founder of Ceradyne, Inc., will preside a ceremonies marking the opening of a 98,000-square-foot factory in Tianjin, the People's Republic of China, Wednesday (June 20, 2007).
The plant, which will be owned and operated by Ceradyne Technical Ceramics, will manufacture silica ceramic crucibles to be used in the manufacture of solar cells that will, in turn, allow "our customers… to produce 'clean and green' electricity in China and elsewhere," said Moskowitz.
"We believe this first Ceradyne manufacturing plant will be the beginning of a series of factories in China designed to manufacture advanced technical ceramics for a wide variety of solar, industrial and commercial applications,"Moskowitz noted. "We intend to use this modern factory as the base for additional manufacturing."
He said Ceradyne, Inc., the parent company, hopes to build additional manufacturing capacity in China to serve developing markets there. Once that demand has been met, he said, then Ceradyne Technical Ceramics will begin to address exports.
In his prepared remarks, Moskowitz notes the company's "intention is to fund these capital expenditures with cash generated by Ceradyne with no debt. We plan to have our factory run and managed by Chinese citizens. We are very pleased with long-time Ceradyne executive Ms. Lu Ning, and our Tianjin General Manager Dr. Shuhai Wang, who, coincidentally did his post-doctoral work at Alfred University in technical ceramics. This University, located in New York State, is the same school I graduated from many years ago in 1961, having studied technical ceramics."
In closing, Moskowitz will tell his guests, "We believe China is a major opportunity for us. We will invest capital and introduce advanced technical ceramics in China using this Tianjin facility as a base. We plan to hire Chinese employees and be a profitable, worthy, responsible corporate citizen."
Dr. Joel Moskowitz, a 1961 graduate of Alfred University, long-time member of its Board of Trustees, and founder of Ceradyne, Inc., will preside a ceremonies marking the opening of a 98,000-square-foot factory in Tianjin, the People's Republic of China, Wednesday (June 20, 2007).
The plant, which will be owned and operated by Ceradyne Technical Ceramics, will manufacture silica ceramic crucibles to be used in the manufacture of solar cells that will, in turn, allow "our customers… to produce 'clean and green' electricity in China and elsewhere," said Moskowitz.
"We believe this first Ceradyne manufacturing plant will be the beginning of a series of factories in China designed to manufacture advanced technical ceramics for a wide variety of solar, industrial and commercial applications,"Moskowitz noted. "We intend to use this modern factory as the base for additional manufacturing."
He said Ceradyne, Inc., the parent company, hopes to build additional manufacturing capacity in China to serve developing markets there. Once that demand has been met, he said, then Ceradyne Technical Ceramics will begin to address exports.
In his prepared remarks, Moskowitz notes the company's "intention is to fund these capital expenditures with cash generated by Ceradyne with no debt. We plan to have our factory run and managed by Chinese citizens. We are very pleased with long-time Ceradyne executive Ms. Lu Ning, and our Tianjin General Manager Dr. Shuhai Wang, who, coincidentally did his post-doctoral work at Alfred University in technical ceramics. This University, located in New York State, is the same school I graduated from many years ago in 1961, having studied technical ceramics."
In closing, Moskowitz will tell his guests, "We believe China is a major opportunity for us. We will invest capital and introduce advanced technical ceramics in China using this Tianjin facility as a base. We plan to hire Chinese employees and be a profitable, worthy, responsible corporate citizen."
Deli Solar (USA), Inc. Raises $2.75 Million in Private Financing
Posted : Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:04:00 GMT
NEW YORK, June 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Deli Solar (USA), Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: DLSL.OB) , a substantial seller of hot water and space heating devices in the People's Republic of China ("PRC"), today announced that on June 14, 2007 it raised $2.75 million in a private placement from the sale of Series A Preferred Stock and Warrants with Barron Partners L.P. as the lead investor investing $2.55 million. The investors purchased an aggregate of (i) 1,774,194 shares of Series A Preferred Stock (ii) five year warrants to purchase 1,774,194 shares of Common Stock with an exercise price $1.90 per share, and (iii) five year warrants to purchase an additional 1,774,194 shares of Common Stock at an exercise price of $2.40 per share. Each share of Series A Preferred Stock is convertible into one share of Common Stock, subject to adjustment. Additional shares of Series A Preferred Stock (not to exceed 900,000) are required to be issued to the investors in the event that the Company fails to achieve certain income targets for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2007 and 2008.
For more information about the terms of this financing please refer to the Current Report on Form 8-K being filed with the SEC on June 19, 2007.
About Deli Solar (USA), Inc.
Deli Solar (USA), Inc. is a domestic holding company owning all the equity capital of Bazhou Deli Solar Energy Heating Co. Ltd. and Beijing Deli Solar Technology Development Co., Ltd., located in the People's Republic of China. It is a substantial seller of hot water and space heating devices to customers in the PRC. Deli Solar (USA), Inc.
NEW YORK, June 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Deli Solar (USA), Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: DLSL.OB) , a substantial seller of hot water and space heating devices in the People's Republic of China ("PRC"), today announced that on June 14, 2007 it raised $2.75 million in a private placement from the sale of Series A Preferred Stock and Warrants with Barron Partners L.P. as the lead investor investing $2.55 million. The investors purchased an aggregate of (i) 1,774,194 shares of Series A Preferred Stock (ii) five year warrants to purchase 1,774,194 shares of Common Stock with an exercise price $1.90 per share, and (iii) five year warrants to purchase an additional 1,774,194 shares of Common Stock at an exercise price of $2.40 per share. Each share of Series A Preferred Stock is convertible into one share of Common Stock, subject to adjustment. Additional shares of Series A Preferred Stock (not to exceed 900,000) are required to be issued to the investors in the event that the Company fails to achieve certain income targets for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2007 and 2008.
For more information about the terms of this financing please refer to the Current Report on Form 8-K being filed with the SEC on June 19, 2007.
About Deli Solar (USA), Inc.
Deli Solar (USA), Inc. is a domestic holding company owning all the equity capital of Bazhou Deli Solar Energy Heating Co. Ltd. and Beijing Deli Solar Technology Development Co., Ltd., located in the People's Republic of China. It is a substantial seller of hot water and space heating devices to customers in the PRC. Deli Solar (USA), Inc.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
China: A clean-tech gold rush? Valley sees big market
By John BoudreauMercury News
Article Launched: 06/18/2007 01:29:56 AM PDT
ZHANGJIAGANG - Sam Huang has found a new land of opportunity for Silicon Valley - in the shadow of a giant smoke stack in the Yangtze River Delta.
Dressed in a black designer suit, with a Treo attached to his ear, the executive with San Jose-based Echelon, whose smart-building technology is usually associated with gleaming high-rises, paid a recent visit to a new client: China's third-largest steel mill. The plant is trying to go green by using Echelon's products to reduce the energy consumed to forge steel and iron to feed China's around-the-clock construction craze.
Less energy used means fewer tons of coal burned to produce electricity. At the Jiangsu Shagang Group, a vast complex located 100 miles west of Shanghai, that saving could be as much as 65,000 tons a year. It is a tiny step for cleaner technology - and clean air - in a nation that is building coal-fired power plants at an assembly-line speed of one a week.
Silicon Valley companies, which first looked to China to manufacture PCs and iPods, now see potential profit in its environmental meltdown.
They see opportunities to sell a vast range of clean-tech products and services. Those include water filtration systems; green building technologies that reduce energy use; processes to convert waste into biofuels; better wind turbines; solar power technology; "smart" street lights; and even software for energy companies to help manage operations more efficiently.
"Every market is big in China," Huang said.
`Next 24 months': Clean tech expects flood of funding
Gary Rieschel, a veteran valley venture capitalist who relocated to Shanghai, sees a "tidal swell" of interest in the China energy and clean-tech market from abroad. "The wave will occur some time in the next 24 months," he predicted. "Silicon Valley has a huge play here."
Already, venture capitalists are increasing their clean-tech bets in China, from $7 million in 2004 to $222 million last year, according to VentureOne and Ernst & Young. In that same period, venture funding for clean-tech deals in the United States soared from $522 million to $884 million.
Chinese government officials and environmentalists say the only hope to head off environmental catastrophe is through the kind of technology Silicon Valley offers. China's air, water and land are so polluted that environmental hazards kill hundreds of thousands of its people each year. And China's pollution problems are spilling over onto other countries. Dirty air traced back to China can be found in California's skies, and could become a major source of pollution.
Cleaning up China's environment "will require good technological assistance and sheer political commitment," said Hal Harvey, environment program director at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in Menlo Park, which funds projects in China.
Doing business in China is never easy for foreign companies, and executives who move into this growing sector face the same challenges others have run into, including corruption, intellectual property theft and a wall of distrust erected by Chinese industry leaders.
But the opportunities in China are too great to ignore, particularly for risk-taking valley entrepreneurs and investors who relish change-the-world business plans.
Some initiatives are driven by personal reasons. Peggy Liu, a former Silicon Valley Internet executive now living in Shanghai, grew tired of watching her two young boys breathe "black air."
So Liu, whose home is outfitted with four air filters, created an international network linking academics, government officials, entrepreneurs and investors on both sides of the Pacific to find practical - and profitable - solutions to China's environmental woes.
"It's the do-good, save-the-world, on-the-edge, it's-OK-nobody-has-figured-it-out-before mentality," said Liu, who in 1996 co-founded an early e-commerce Web site. "I was one of those people."
In early April, she organized a conference on energy for U.S. investors in Shanghai that attracted high-level Chinese government officials and members of the Bush administration (www.mitenergyinchina.org). She then founded the Joint U.S.-China Cooperation on Clean Energy, a network of government officials, investors, industries and researchers to promote innovation in areas such as energy-efficient buildings, transportation systems, non-food biofuels and "clean" coal technology.
High-priced tech: `We may not be able to afford it'
"It's not just the technology that comes out of Stanford University," said Liu, chief operating officer of Mustang Ventures, a $40 million fund focused on investing in start-ups in China. "There is a whole industry of things that will appear, a whole slew of service-based companies."
But for any venture to succeed in China's new and often ruthless market economy, it must produce clear economic benefits, and those can be hard to achieve.
"On the one hand, we want the best technology," Lai Ming, general director of science and technology with the Ministry of Construction, said in his office in one of Beijing's boxy, Soviet-era buildings. "On the other hand, we may not be able to afford it. The Silicon Valley guys may not be able to lower the price."
Selling to this once-closed society requires a very different business model.
"You must find some old China hands, people who understand the government," advised Xiong Sihao, a vice minister who oversees network coordination and information security. "You just can't come here and say, `I have the greatest technology.' Who cares?"
Plenty of patience must be built into any China business plan, said Andrew Hu, who has headed up China operations for Oracle, and is now president of China operations for San Jose's Wyse Technologies. Wyse makes "thin client" devices, desktop monitors that resemble a personal computer but operate on a network and provide significant energy savings.
Wyse, which had trouble getting traction in China, now has a more receptive audience because of the new focus on saving energy. A Wyse device uses about 10 watts per hour, vs. 300 watts for a regular desktop.
"The pollution is killing the environment," Hu said. "The government is trying to do everything to make even the slightest improvements."
While companies trying to crack the clean-tech market in China face many challenges, some can take advantage of its authoritarian government structure.
"You can do things on a scale in China that you can't in the United States," said Charles Freeman, managing director of the China Alliance, an association of law firms. "And the government can demand things on fiat: If you've got a better catalytic converter, the government will actually mandate it."
But there are downsides, added Freeman, who served as the United States' chief China trade negotiator from 2002 to 2005. "Your intellectual property will be pirated. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. The key is to be constantly innovating."
Intematix, a maker of materials for next-generation street lights that are energy-efficient, longer-lasting and non-fluorescent, counters the piracy threat by manufacturing its products in Fremont, then selling them in China.
"Everyone tries to copy," said Chief Executive Peter Larsson. But he added that China is changing and that copycats are increasingly concerned about getting sued.
Cautious optimism: China remains focused on economic growth
Whether China can sustain economic growth while improving its environment remains to be seen. Likewise, Silicon Valley's ability to succeed as a clean-tech partner in China is far from guaranteed.
"All this hype, all these people running around - it reminds me of the bubble," said Shanghai-based venture capitalist Andy Tang, managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson's Dragon Fund in China.
Still, Tang said he is "cautiously optimistic" about the new business environment in China, particularly for companies with clean-tech pitches. Many of the start-ups he has investigated actually have made money.
Rob McCormack, co-founder of Mustang Ventures and husband of Peggy Liu, isn't optimistic that the government has the will to strike a balance between economic growth and environmental protection.
"I go to cities of 400,000, 500,000 and they are just disgusting," he said. "China doesn't care about pollution. They are still going for growth, because growth is stability."
But his wife looks at the country's exploding economy and draws an opposite conclusion.
Driving through Shanghai's Pudong district, a forest of skyscrapers that 15 years ago was farmland, she pointed to yet another nearly completed high-rise. "This building didn't exist a few months go." She sees the same get-it-done drive in the government's campaign to save the environment.
"I think the government is absolutely serious about what they call green GDP," Liu said.
Article Launched: 06/18/2007 01:29:56 AM PDT
ZHANGJIAGANG - Sam Huang has found a new land of opportunity for Silicon Valley - in the shadow of a giant smoke stack in the Yangtze River Delta.
Dressed in a black designer suit, with a Treo attached to his ear, the executive with San Jose-based Echelon, whose smart-building technology is usually associated with gleaming high-rises, paid a recent visit to a new client: China's third-largest steel mill. The plant is trying to go green by using Echelon's products to reduce the energy consumed to forge steel and iron to feed China's around-the-clock construction craze.
Less energy used means fewer tons of coal burned to produce electricity. At the Jiangsu Shagang Group, a vast complex located 100 miles west of Shanghai, that saving could be as much as 65,000 tons a year. It is a tiny step for cleaner technology - and clean air - in a nation that is building coal-fired power plants at an assembly-line speed of one a week.
Silicon Valley companies, which first looked to China to manufacture PCs and iPods, now see potential profit in its environmental meltdown.
They see opportunities to sell a vast range of clean-tech products and services. Those include water filtration systems; green building technologies that reduce energy use; processes to convert waste into biofuels; better wind turbines; solar power technology; "smart" street lights; and even software for energy companies to help manage operations more efficiently.
"Every market is big in China," Huang said.
`Next 24 months': Clean tech expects flood of funding
Gary Rieschel, a veteran valley venture capitalist who relocated to Shanghai, sees a "tidal swell" of interest in the China energy and clean-tech market from abroad. "The wave will occur some time in the next 24 months," he predicted. "Silicon Valley has a huge play here."
Already, venture capitalists are increasing their clean-tech bets in China, from $7 million in 2004 to $222 million last year, according to VentureOne and Ernst & Young. In that same period, venture funding for clean-tech deals in the United States soared from $522 million to $884 million.
Chinese government officials and environmentalists say the only hope to head off environmental catastrophe is through the kind of technology Silicon Valley offers. China's air, water and land are so polluted that environmental hazards kill hundreds of thousands of its people each year. And China's pollution problems are spilling over onto other countries. Dirty air traced back to China can be found in California's skies, and could become a major source of pollution.
Cleaning up China's environment "will require good technological assistance and sheer political commitment," said Hal Harvey, environment program director at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in Menlo Park, which funds projects in China.
Doing business in China is never easy for foreign companies, and executives who move into this growing sector face the same challenges others have run into, including corruption, intellectual property theft and a wall of distrust erected by Chinese industry leaders.
But the opportunities in China are too great to ignore, particularly for risk-taking valley entrepreneurs and investors who relish change-the-world business plans.
Some initiatives are driven by personal reasons. Peggy Liu, a former Silicon Valley Internet executive now living in Shanghai, grew tired of watching her two young boys breathe "black air."
So Liu, whose home is outfitted with four air filters, created an international network linking academics, government officials, entrepreneurs and investors on both sides of the Pacific to find practical - and profitable - solutions to China's environmental woes.
"It's the do-good, save-the-world, on-the-edge, it's-OK-nobody-has-figured-it-out-before mentality," said Liu, who in 1996 co-founded an early e-commerce Web site. "I was one of those people."
In early April, she organized a conference on energy for U.S. investors in Shanghai that attracted high-level Chinese government officials and members of the Bush administration (www.mitenergyinchina.org). She then founded the Joint U.S.-China Cooperation on Clean Energy, a network of government officials, investors, industries and researchers to promote innovation in areas such as energy-efficient buildings, transportation systems, non-food biofuels and "clean" coal technology.
High-priced tech: `We may not be able to afford it'
"It's not just the technology that comes out of Stanford University," said Liu, chief operating officer of Mustang Ventures, a $40 million fund focused on investing in start-ups in China. "There is a whole industry of things that will appear, a whole slew of service-based companies."
But for any venture to succeed in China's new and often ruthless market economy, it must produce clear economic benefits, and those can be hard to achieve.
"On the one hand, we want the best technology," Lai Ming, general director of science and technology with the Ministry of Construction, said in his office in one of Beijing's boxy, Soviet-era buildings. "On the other hand, we may not be able to afford it. The Silicon Valley guys may not be able to lower the price."
Selling to this once-closed society requires a very different business model.
"You must find some old China hands, people who understand the government," advised Xiong Sihao, a vice minister who oversees network coordination and information security. "You just can't come here and say, `I have the greatest technology.' Who cares?"
Plenty of patience must be built into any China business plan, said Andrew Hu, who has headed up China operations for Oracle, and is now president of China operations for San Jose's Wyse Technologies. Wyse makes "thin client" devices, desktop monitors that resemble a personal computer but operate on a network and provide significant energy savings.
Wyse, which had trouble getting traction in China, now has a more receptive audience because of the new focus on saving energy. A Wyse device uses about 10 watts per hour, vs. 300 watts for a regular desktop.
"The pollution is killing the environment," Hu said. "The government is trying to do everything to make even the slightest improvements."
While companies trying to crack the clean-tech market in China face many challenges, some can take advantage of its authoritarian government structure.
"You can do things on a scale in China that you can't in the United States," said Charles Freeman, managing director of the China Alliance, an association of law firms. "And the government can demand things on fiat: If you've got a better catalytic converter, the government will actually mandate it."
But there are downsides, added Freeman, who served as the United States' chief China trade negotiator from 2002 to 2005. "Your intellectual property will be pirated. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. The key is to be constantly innovating."
Intematix, a maker of materials for next-generation street lights that are energy-efficient, longer-lasting and non-fluorescent, counters the piracy threat by manufacturing its products in Fremont, then selling them in China.
"Everyone tries to copy," said Chief Executive Peter Larsson. But he added that China is changing and that copycats are increasingly concerned about getting sued.
Cautious optimism: China remains focused on economic growth
Whether China can sustain economic growth while improving its environment remains to be seen. Likewise, Silicon Valley's ability to succeed as a clean-tech partner in China is far from guaranteed.
"All this hype, all these people running around - it reminds me of the bubble," said Shanghai-based venture capitalist Andy Tang, managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson's Dragon Fund in China.
Still, Tang said he is "cautiously optimistic" about the new business environment in China, particularly for companies with clean-tech pitches. Many of the start-ups he has investigated actually have made money.
Rob McCormack, co-founder of Mustang Ventures and husband of Peggy Liu, isn't optimistic that the government has the will to strike a balance between economic growth and environmental protection.
"I go to cities of 400,000, 500,000 and they are just disgusting," he said. "China doesn't care about pollution. They are still going for growth, because growth is stability."
But his wife looks at the country's exploding economy and draws an opposite conclusion.
Driving through Shanghai's Pudong district, a forest of skyscrapers that 15 years ago was farmland, she pointed to yet another nearly completed high-rise. "This building didn't exist a few months go." She sees the same get-it-done drive in the government's campaign to save the environment.
"I think the government is absolutely serious about what they call green GDP," Liu said.
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