• Ascent Solar, Tucson, Arizona, US
• Anwell Solar, Hong Kong, China
• DayStar Technologies, Inc., Santa Clara, California, US
• Global Solar, Tucson, Arizona, US
• GreenSun Energy, Jerusalem, Israel
• HelioVolt, Austin, Texas, US
• International Solar Electric Technology, Chatsworth, California, US
• Isofotón, Malaga, Spain
• Konarka Technologies, Inc., Lowell, Massachusetts, US
• LDK Solar, Xinyu, China
• Miasolé, California, US
• Mitsubishi Electric, Tokyo, Japan
• Moser Baer Photovoltaic, Delhi, India
• Nanosolar, San José, California, US
• Odersun, Frankfurt Oder, Germany
• PowerFilm, Inc., Ames, Iowa, US
• Pyron Solar, San Diego, California, US
• Renewable Energy Corporation, Norway
• Schott Solar, Germany
• Signet Solar, California, US
• SolarEdge, Grass Valley, California, US ^[12]
• SolarPark Korea, Wanju, South Korea
• SolarWorld, Bonn, Germany
• Solimpeks, Munich, Germany
• SoloPower, San José, California, US
• Spectrolab, Inc., Sylmar, California, US
• Sulfurcell, Company has changed Name to Soltecture in 2011, Germany
• SunEdison
• Sunetric, Hawaii, US
• Suniva, Norcross, Georgia, US
• Sun Power Corporation, San Jose, California, US
• Topray Solar, China
• Unirac, Albuquerque, New Mexico, US

• Applied Materials, a solar cell capital equipment producer.
• List of CIGS companies
• List of concentrating solar thermal power companies
• List of renewable energy companies by stock exchange
• List of silicon producers
• Renewable energy industry
• Thin-film photovoltaic cell
• Low-cost photovoltaic cell
• Solar cell
• Power optimizer
• Solar inverter

1. ^ REN21 (2008). Renewables 2007 Global Status Report (PDF) p. 6.
2. ^ REN21 (2008). Renewables 2007 Global Status Report (PDF) p. 19.
3. ^ [1] Ontario Power Authority FIT success press release, March 10, 2010
4. ^ ^a b c Hirshman, W. P., “Surprise, surprise (cell production 2009: survey),” Photon International, (March 2010), pp. 176-199.
5. ^ http://pvinsights.com/Report/ReportPMM31A.php
6. ^ Hirshman, W. P., “Little smiles on long faces (cell production 2008: survey),” Photon International, (March 2009), pp. 170-206.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved Toshiba Corp. (6502)’s AP1000 reactor design, clearing the way for the agency to issue its first new reactor construction license in more than 30 years.

The five-member agency voted unanimously in favor of certifying the design, Scott Burnell, a commission spokesman, said in an e-mail today. Southern Co. (SO) and Scana Corp. (SCG) are seeking permission to use the reactor design to expand nuclear power output at existing sites in Georgia and South Carolina.

No dates were set for decisions on issuing construction and operating licenses for Southern and Scana, Burnell said in an interview. The agency hasn’t given permission to build a new U.S. reactor since the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979.

Southern expects its license “any time now,” Steve Higginbottom, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based company, said after the vote. It has estimated the project’s total cost at $14 billion. Licenses will create 3,000 jobs at each site, Westinghouse Electric, a unit of Tokyo-based Toshiba, said today in a statement.

Scana anticipates licensing of its two planned reactors later this year or early in 2012, the Cayce, South Carolina- based company said today in an e-mailed statement. It estimated the cost at $9.1 billion in February 2011. The first new reactor is scheduled to begin operation around the beginning of 2016, according to the company website.

‘Holiday Gift’

“Today, the NRC has presented its holiday gift to the nuclear industry,” said RepresentativeEdward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, who had urged the commission to reject the acceleration of construction.

Receipt of a license within 60 days will enable Scana to maintain its current work schedule to add new reactors at its V.C. Summer site, Alan Torres, general manager for nuclear plant construction at Cayce, South Carolina-based Scana, said in a Dec. 20 telephone interview.

The schedule for the Westinghouse certification was “fairly well maintained,” Russell Bell, director of new plant licensing for the Nuclear Energy Institute, a U.S. trade group, said today in an interview. The commission has studied potential rule revisions following the March nuclear-plant meltdowns in Fukushima, Japan.

“The commission made the determination that this design in particular addressed a number of those issues that arose in Japan and new requirements that we learned from Fukushima can be imposed later,” he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jim Polson in New York at jpolson@bloomberg.net; Eric Martin in Washington at emartin21@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tina Davis at tinadavis@bloomberg.net; Steve Geimann at sgeimann@bloomberg.net

Foxconn Technology Group’s decision to start making solar power modules may speed the rate at which margins are narrowing for Chinese manufacturers, another blow for an industry already coping with a plunge in prices.

The Taiwanese company that’s the world’s biggest contract maker of electronics including Apple Inc.’s IPhone started work on a solar-module plant in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu near the headquarters of Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP), the largest silicon-based module manufacturer.

“Foxconn plans to build new factories with undreamed-of scale and lower cost,” Jenny Chase, who leads a team of six solar analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said yesterday. “It will push capacity higher and prices lower.”

Prices for solar cells have skidded 62 percent this year as Chinese companies led by Suntech boosted production and won market share from European and Japanese rivals. Foxconn’s gross margin of 5.6 was less than half Suntech’s in the third quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Chase said Foxconn’s Ebitda margin (2354) ranges from 2 percent to 5 percent compared with as much as 30 percent enjoyed by the companies purely manufacturing solar products.

“Foxconn is good at operating with low margins in electronics and can replicate the success it has there to the solar industry,” Lian Rui, a senior analyst for the research company Solarbuzz, said by phone from Shanghai. It “will make the competition fiercer and drive margins down further.”

Foxconn’s Plans

Foxconn will begin trial production in May, the government of Funing county, where the plant is, said in a website statement on Dec. 22. The company’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (2317)unit will invest $30 million as registered capital to set up Fuyu Energy Technology (Funing) Co. in the county, according to a Dec. 20 filing to the Taiwan exchange. The unit will make solar cells. No details about the plant’s capacity were given.

Two calls to the office of Edmund Ding, spokesman for Taipei-based Hon Hai, during regular business hours yesterday weren’t answered.

Suntech’s gross margin declined to 13.3 percent in the third quarter from 17.9 percent a year earlier. JA Solar Holdings Co. (JASO), based in Shanghai, had a negative 4.3 percent gross margin in the third quarter compared with 22.5 percent last year.

Solar Margins

Asian solar companies enjoyed high margins in the industry as shipments surged last year. The average gross margin for the 10 Asia-based solar companies in Bloomberg Industries’ Large Solar Index was 24.6 percent last year. Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) had a gross margin of 33.2 percent and Yingli Green Energy Holding (YGE) Co. 31.5 percent, the Bloomberg data shows.

Foxconn’s gross margin was 5.6 percent in the six months through June 30, down from 6.8 percent in the second half of 2010, Bloomberg data also shows.

The average price for solar modules has declined 47 percent this year to $0.94 a watt, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Three U.S. companies led by Solyndra LLC filed for bankruptcy this year. In Germany, Q-Cells SE (QCE), once the world’s biggest solar maker, is looking for a partner after its earnings and margins plunged.

“Foxconn’s entry into the solar industry has been rumored for a long time,” Chase said. “The company’s formal entry at a time when ingot, wafer and cell makers are not making their cash costs must be bad news for the incumbent companies.”

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Feifei Shen in Beijing atfshen11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net

By Stephanie Bodoni - Dec 21, 2011 2:05 PM MT

International airlines must comply with the European Union’s carbon-emission limits, the region’s highest court said in a final ruling that may inflame trade tensions between Europe and the U.S.

The EU Court of Justice today confirmed the validity of EU rules that include aviation in the emissions-trading system, known as the ETS. U.S. airlines said the judgment would “isolate” the region from the rest of the world.

United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL), AMR Corp. (AMR)’s American Airlines and the Air Transport Association of America challenged the EU’s attempt to extend the world’s largest carbon cap-and- trade program beyond its borders. The Luxembourg-based court’s ruling, which can’t be appealed, means the rules will be imposed on any flights to and from EU airports starting next year.

While the U.S. is not a party to the case, the government has been monitoring it closely, Krishna R. Urs, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, said in an e-mailed statement today.

“We continue to have strong legal and policy objections to the inclusion of flights by non-EU air carriers in the EU ETS,” he said. “We do not view the Court’s decision as resolving these objections.”

Airlines for America, the industry group representing the interests of U.S. airlines, said the decision “further isolates the EU from the rest of the world” and maintains “a unilateral scheme that is counterproductive to concerted global action on aviation and climate change.”

‘Crystal Clear’

EU carbon permits for December 2012 delivery briefly pared losses after the ruling. The contract fell 6.3 percent to 8.36 euros a metric ton at closing on ICE Futures Europe in London.

“The EU now expects U.S. airlines to respect EU law” after a “crystal-clear ruling,” Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in a post on Twitter.

At a court hearing in July, the airlines said the plan to extend the EU carbon market to flights to and from EU airports was unlawful. They argued the rules violate several principles of customary international law and international agreements, including the Chicago Convention, which governs international civil aviation. The EU decided in 2008 that aviation should become a part of its carbon cap-and-trade program.

EU Arrivals

The EU law “is not intended to apply as such to aircraft flying over the high seas or over the territory” of EU nations, the court said. “It is only if the operators of such aircraft choose to operate a commercial air route arriving at or departing from an airport situated in the EU that they are subject to the emissions trading scheme.”

The EU rules don’t violate the principle of territoriality or the sovereignty of third states, said the court.

The decision “is unlikely to significantly boost the EU carbon allowances price,” Bloomberg New Energy Finance analysts said in an e-mail. “The issue is likely to remain in the headlines as opposing countries may increase political pressure on the EU.”

International airlines should be exempt from the EU curbs, the International Civil Aviation Organization said last month in a declaration that drew together China, Russia, and the U.S. The non-binding statement was adopted at the urging of 26 countries, which also includedBrazil, Japan and India.

“We urge the EU to work with its international partners in the International Civil Aviation Organization to address the valid concerns that have been raised by the international community,” the State Department’s Urs said.

China Court Case

The ICAO plans to strike a deal next year creating a global carbon market for the industry, said Raymond Benjamin, its secretary general. The World Bank may help manage the proposed greenhouse-gas market for the world’s 50 biggest nations, which would supersede the EU program in 2014 or 2015, he has said.

Chinese airlines aim to take the EU to court in Germany by the end of the year, the China Air Transport Association said. Members of the group include Air China Ltd., China Southern Airlines Co. and China Eastern Airlines Corp.

“The U.S. government and dozens of others around the world are increasing pressure on the EU to come back to the table to consider” a global approach, Airlines for America, formerly known as the Air Transport Association, said in an e-mailed statement. A4A members “will comply under protest” with the EU carbon-emissions curbs in the meantime, the group said.

The EU law offers the possibility of exempting incoming flights from a particular country if that nation implements equivalent measures to cut aviation-related pollution. The commission includes that option in bilateral meetings with various countries.

U.S. House Bill

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill earlier this year prohibiting the country’s airlines from participating in the EU program after the industry estimated the cap-and-trade system would cost U.S. airlines $3.1 billion from 2012 to 2020. That measure needs backing from the Senate and President Barack Obama to become law.

The case will now return to the U.K. court that referred it and which will now have to rule in line with today’s decision.

The case is: C-366/10, The Air Transport Association of America, American Airlines, Inc., Continental Airlines, Inc., United Airlines, Inc. v. The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg atsbodoni@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net

BP Plc is exiting the solar business after 40 years, countering a trend led by Google Inc. (GOOG), Warren Buffett and Total SA (FP) of investing in the industry just as competition drives down the cost of sun-based power.

Europe’s second-largest oil company will wind down the unit over several months because it has become unprofitable, BP Solar Chief Executive Officer Mike Petrucci told staff in an internal letter last week. About 100 employees will be affected.

BP Solar is withdrawing from an industry that’s facing oversupply and price pressures after Chinese competitors increased production. Total, Europe’s third-biggest oil company, Buffett and Google have entered the industry with investments over the last six months to take advantage of attractive tax breaks, declining costs and a source of power hedged against high fossil-fuel prices.

BP’s move is an anomaly with more companies trying to get involved than are getting out, saidPaul Leming, an analyst with Ticonderoga Securities LLC analyst in New York.

“Two of the biggest oil companies have taken the opposite approaches,” Leming said in a phone interview. “The move toward alternative energy continues to be a well-recognized megatrend.”

BP’s solar equipment venture in India with Tata Power Co. (TPWR) is conducting “business as usual,” K. Subramanya, chief executive of Tata BP Solar India Ltd., said today by phone. BP owns 51 percent of India’s third-biggest cell and panel maker. Tata Power, the utility arm of the industrial company that owns Corus Group and Jaguar Land Rover, declined to comment.

‘Pretty Dire’

“I can’t speak on behalf of my shareholders,” Subramanya said from Bangalore. “All I can say is we continue to conduct our business capably and actively.”

BP, an early entrant into the business, found it difficult compete against newer rivals, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in a note to clients today.

“Manufacturing is looking pretty dire for everyone, and BP was outpaced by faster moving pure-plays years ago,” the London-based researcher said. While its move to diversify from manufacturing into building plants was more successful, “BP had no obvious competitive advantage apart from access to finance,” it said.

Panel prices plunged 48 percent this year, helping tip three U.S. makers including Solyndra LLC into bankruptcy. Solon SE (SOO1), Germany’s first listed solar company, filed for insolvency last week.

‘Making It Difficult’

“The continuing global economic challenges have significantly impacted the solar industry, making it difficult to sustain long-term returns for the company,” Petrucci said in the letter to staff.

BP Solar stopped most of its manufacturing in early 2009, closing several factories in Spain and shedding 480 jobs after the Spanish market froze, triggering the solar industry’s first period of strong oversupply. Tata BP’s Subramanya declined to say at what capacity the India plants are producing equipment.

In July, BP Solar decided to quit manufacturing entirely and focus on developing large projects. It no longer has manufacturing plants, Robert Wine, a spokesman for the London- based parent, said today by phone.

BP Solar plans to sell its stakes in the more than 158 megawatts of projects it’s developed with local partners in countries including Italy, Spain, Germany, Britain and the U.S. The decision will not affect BP’s other renewable energy units, which include wind power and biofuels, Wine said.

SunPower, Buffett

Paris-based Total bought a 60 percent stake in SunPower Corp., which makes panels, in April as high natural-gas prices in Europe and increasing concerns about nuclear power sparked interest in clean energy.

Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings agreed this month to buy a $2 billion solar project under development in California and a 49 percent stake in a $1.8 billion plant in Arizona. Generous solar tax credits valid to 2015 may have lured the billionaire investor, who already owns wind farms, into his first solar foray, Gerard Reid, an analyst at Jefferies International Ltd., said on Dec. 7.

Google announced an agreement yesterday with the private equity firm KKR & Co. to invest in four California solar plants, bringing the owner of the most popular Internet search engine’s total investment in clean-energy projects to $915 million, according to a statement.

Global investment in renewable energy was $195 billion in 2010 and is expected to more than double to $395 billion in 2020, according to BNEF.

To contact the reporters on this story: Marc Roca in London at mroca6@bloomberg.net; Ehren Goossens in New York at egoossens1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net

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By Tara Lachapelle, Christopher Martin and Richard Weiss - Dec 21, 2011 6:27 PM MT

For acquirers willing to wager on the future of solar power, First Solar Inc. has gotten $22 billion cheaper.

First Solar has tumbled (FSLR) 76 percent this year, the biggest drop in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as the Tempe, Arizona- based company lowered its profit forecast and shifted its focus to large power plants. Once worth $25 billion, First Solar was valued this week as low as $2.64 billion, the steepest discount to net assets since its 2006 initial public offering and cheaper than 94 percent of renewable energy equipment companies greater than $1 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The world’s largest maker of thin-film solar panels may now attract takeover interest from General Electric Co. (GE) or Siemens AG (SIE)on the expectation that demand will increase in the $55 billion solar power industry during the next decade as prices become more competitive with fossil fuels and other forms of electricity, according to Robert W. Baird & Co. While short sellers have boosted bearish bets against First Solar to the third highest in the S&P 500, it could command at least a 50 percent premium in an acquisition, said Kaufman Bros. LP.

“Given the pull back in the price, it certainly does make a lot more sense for someone to buy out First Solar,” Jeff Bencik, a New York-based analyst for Kaufman, said in a telephone interview. “At the end of the day, First Solar is still profitable. So you are buying the best in the industry at a discount price. Certainly for both GE and Siemens it would diversify their energy platform.”

First Solar Restructuring

Alan Bernheimer, a spokesman at First Solar, Sean Gannon, a spokesman for Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE, and Philipp Encz, a spokesman for Munich-based Siemens, declined to comment on takeover speculation.

First Solar’s stock has plunged 25 percent since Dec. 14 when it reduced 2011 profit and sales forecasts, projected earnings next year that missed analysts’ estimates and said it will fire about 100 employees in the second restructuring in six weeks. The company is reorganizing to focus on large utility- scale power plants instead of smaller, rooftop installations after ousting its chief executive officer in October and replacing him with Michael Ahearn, the founder and chairman, on an interim basis.

More than 17 million shares, or about 20 percent of First Solar’s outstanding stock, are currently shorted, the third-most in the S&P 500 behind GameStop Corp. and Supervalu Inc., according to data compiled by New York-based Data Explorers. In a short sale, a trader borrows stock and sells it, hoping to profit from a decline by replacing it at a lower price.

‘Bad Neighborhood’

Plunging prices for solar panels have eroded profit margins across the industry as manufacturers ramped up production capacity faster than demand increased, creating a global glut of supply. The spot price of solar panels has fallen 47 percent this year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, while crude oil prices have gained 8 percent in New York.

First Solar uses cadmium-telluride in its thin-film panels, which require less time and energy to manufacture than the more common ones based on silicon semiconductors.

“First Solar is definitely the best company in a bad neighborhood at this point,” Michael Horwitz, a San Francisco- based analyst for Robert W. Baird, said in a phone interview. “Eventually it probably makes sense for them to be part of a larger company.”

The market for solar power surged 67 percent last year to $55 billion on new projects with a capacity to produce about 18,000 megawatts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s equivalent to adding 18 typical nuclear reactors for electricity production.

Record Low Valuation

New solar installations may reach 24,000 megawatts this year and hold steady at about that rate next year, according to a Nov. 1 report from Jenny Chase, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Annual demand may climb to as much as 34,700 megawatts in 2013, she wrote.

First Solar’s shares closed Dec. 19 at a record low of 0.65 times book value, or the value of its assets minus liabilities, cheaper than every renewable energy equipment maker with a current market value greater than $1 billion except for wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems A/S at 0.62 times, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The combined equity and net debt of First Solar was valued at 0.9 times sales, also a record low, the data show.

‘On the Cheap’

“It would make a lot of sense for somebody to buy First Solar on the cheap while there is significant dislocation in the solar industry,” Michael Obuchowski, chief investment officer at First Empire Asset Management in Hauppauge, New York, which owns shares of First Solar, said in an e-mail. “Acquiring First Solar at the bottom of the market would be a very smart move for a number of large industrial companies.”

GE, the world’s biggest (SPX) maker of power-generation equipment, may be interested in acquiring First Solar to bolster its solar operations and take advantage of the company’s technology for power plants, according to GE investor Huntington Asset Advisors and analysts at Kaufman and Robert W. Baird.

“They could buy First Solar, which already has significant scale and is well ahead of where GE is,” said Horwitz at Robert W. Baird. “It would probably make more sense to buy than build. If you’re GE or Siemens, you already build power plants, you’re already out there talking to their customer base, so this would just be another option to bring to the customer.”

Solar Industry ‘Carnage’

GE, the largest wind turbine supplier in the U.S., bought a closely held thin-film maker this year that uses the same material in its solar panels as First Solar and announced in October plans to build its own solar plant in Colorado. The company is investing $10 billion by 2015 to develop environmentally friendly products across its large-equipment areas, including power generation,jet engines and locomotives.

“There’s a lot of carnage in the solar industry right now,” Jeffrey Immelt, GE’s chief executive officer, said at the company’s annual investor meeting in New York last week when asked about potential deals. He said GE’s preference is to build organically.

“GE loves to buy on the cheap,” Peter Sorrentino, a senior fund manager who helps oversee $14.5 billion, including shares of GE and Siemens, for Huntington in Cincinnati, said in a phone interview. “It’s not something that would be a real super competitive advantage, but at the right price, if it made their life easier, of course they’d do the deal.”

Siemens as Buyer

First Solar may also attract Siemens, the market leader in off-shore wind turbines, according to Horwitz and Kaufman’s Bencik. Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering company, is aiming for 40 billion euros ($52 billion) in sales with “green technologies” by 2014, up from 29.9 billion euros in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30.

“They have next to nothing in photovoltaics, and they may be able to combine their strength in wind power with photovoltaics,” the panels that First Solar makes, Thilo Mueller, who helps manage 100 million euros at MB Fund Advisory in Limburg, Germany, said in a phone interview. “It would make sense for Siemens, and they may be able to get First Solar for a comparatively cheap price.”

His fund owns Siemens shares, and he said he’s considering buying First Solar stock.

Still, Siemens’s solar investments have struggled. The company bought Solel Solar Systems for $418 million in 2009 to try to duplicate its success in wind turbines. Losses accelerated as governments curtailed spending on infrastructure and Solel’s solar thermal technology faced less expensive solar panels, leading Siemens to write down the value of the business.

Walton Family

Deals in the solar power industry reached $3.4 billion this year, the most since $6.1 billion in transactions were announced in 2009, data compiled by Bloomberg show, as targets sought partners to share project costs and acquirers took advantage of a drop in solar stocks.

First Solar shareholders, the largest of whom is the Walton family that founded Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) and own almost a third of the solar company’s shares, would likely demand at least a 50 percent premium in a takeover, Kaufman’s Bencik said. That would equate to $47.70 a share based on yesterday’s closing price. Total SA (FP) paid a 44 percent premium for a 60 percent stake in First Solar’s rival SunPower Corp. in April.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” Timothy Arcuri, an analyst for Citigroup Inc. in San Francisco, said in a phone interview. “If you’re bullish on solar and you think there’s ultimately going to be significant demand for these big solar farms around the world, there really is no other company on the planet today that can provision, develop and finance — or get financed — for these big solar farms.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Tara Lachapelle in New York attlachapelle@bloomberg.net; Christopher Martin in New York at cmartin11@bloomberg.net;Richard Weiss in Frankfurt at rweiss5@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Hauck at dhauck1@bloomberg.net; Katherine Snyder at ksnyder@bloomberg.net; Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 orlandberg@bloomberg.net.

By Marc Roca and Ehren Goossens - Dec 20, 2011 2:18 PM MT

BP Plc, Europe’s second-largest oil company, will shut its solar power unit and quit the business entirely after 40 years because it’s become unprofitable.

The company will wind down the unit, BP Solar, over several months, Mike Petrucci, the unit’s chief executive officer, told staff in an internal letter last week. About 100 employees will be affected.

BP Solar is withdrawing from an industry that’s facing oversupply and price pressures after Asian competitors increased production. Panel prices plunged 48 percent this year, helping tip three U.S. makers including Solyndra LLC into bankruptcy, and Solon SE (SOO1),Germany’s first listed solar company, filed for insolvency last week.

“The continuing global economic challenges have significantly impacted the solar industry, making it difficult to sustain long-term returns for the company,” Petrucci said in the letter.

BP Solar stopped most of its manufacturing in early 2009, closing several factories in Spain and shedding 480 jobs after the Spanish market froze, triggering the solar industry’s first period of strong oversupply.

The company decided in July to quit manufacturing entirely and focus on developing large projects. It no longer has manufacturing plants, Robert Wine, a spokesman for the London- based parent, said today by telephone.

‘Insignificance’

As the company pared back its operations, it “withered away to insignificance,” Paul Leming, an analyst with Ticonderoga Securities LLC analyst in New York, said today in a telephone interview.

BP Solar plans to sell its stakes in the more than 158 megawatts of projects it’s developed with local partners in countries including Italy, Spain, Germany, Britain and the U.S. The decision will not affect BP’s other renewable energy units, which include wind power and biofuels, Wine said.

BP is exiting the solar industry six months after Paris- based Total SA (FP), Europe’s third-largest oil company, jumped in by buying a 60 percent stake in SunPower Corp., the U.S. solar panel company.

“Two of the biggest oil companies have taken the opposite approaches to solar industry in this short period of time,” Leming said, and BP’s move is the anomaly.

‘Mega-Trend’

“The move toward alternative energy continues to be a well-recognized mega-trend,” he said, with more companies trying to get involved than getting out. BP’s exit is “sort of a non-event,” he said.

Other companies are moving into the industry. Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings agreed this month to buy a $2 billion solar project under development in California and a 49 percent stake in a $1.8 billion plant in Arizona. The billionaire already owns wind farms and these are his first forays into solar.

Google Inc. and KKR & Co. today announced an agreement to invest in four California solar power plants with total capacity of 88 megawatts.

Global investment in renewable energy was $195 billion in 2010 and is expected to more than double to $395 billion in 2020, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

To contact the reporters on this story: Marc Roca in London at mroca6@bloomberg.net; Ehren Goossens in New York at egoossens1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net

By Andrew Herndon - Dec 20, 2011 4:00 AM MT

Google Inc. (GOOG), owner of the world’s most popular Internet search engine, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) invested in four California solar farms that will provide enough clean power for about 13,000 U.S. homes.

The projects totaling 88 megawatts of capacity will be built next year near Sacramento by Recurrent Energy Inc., a unit of Sharp Corp., Google and KKR said today in a statement. This is the first investment in grid-connected photovoltaic solar power by Google, which said it has invested more than $915 million in renewable-energy projects.

It also is the first clean-energy investment in the U.S. by KKR, which invested through SunTap Energy RE LLC, its newly formed U.S. solar investment unit, according to the statement. Google invested $94 million, and KKR provided a portion of the $95 million it has committed to SunTap.

The plants will generate cash from power sales to Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which will pay for the generated electricity at above-market rates as part of a feed-in tariff program that began this year. The 20-year contracts of the program offer 7.5 cents to 27.6 cents a kilowatt-hour depending on the time of delivery.

Google has invested in other forms of solar energy, including $168 million in BrightSource Energy Inc.’s Ivanpah solar-thermal power plant in southern California. It also provided $280 million earlier this year to SolarCity Corp. and $75 million for Clean Power Finance Inc. to finance rooftop photovoltaic installations for more than 10,000 U.S. homeowners.

KKR, which had $58.7 billion in assets under management as of Sept. 30, has two other renewable-energy investments. It invested in Spanish solar-energy company T-Solar Global SA and in wind parks Sorgenia SpA is developing in France, according to the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Herndon in San Francisco ataherndon2@bloomberg.net

By Christopher Martin and Justin Doom - Dec 20, 2011 3:21 PM MT

JA Solar Holdings Co. (JASO), the world’s largest solar-cell maker, jumped the most in three weeks after announcing a product that converts as much as 18.5 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity.

JA Solar’s American depositary receipts climbed 14 percent to $1.40 at the close in New York, the biggest increase since Nov. 30. It was the third-largest gain among the 37 companies in the Bloomberg Global Leaders Solar Index, which rose 4.4 percent today. The company’s ADRs have dropped 80 percent this year. Each ADR is worth one ordinary share of Shanghai-based JA Solar.

The company is producing Maple multicrystalline cells “in large volume production,” it said today in a statement. Maple’s conversion efficiency tops the industry average of 16.8 percent for multicrystalline cells, JA Solar said.

“It’s a nice milestone,” said Pavel Molchanov, an analyst for Raymond James & Associates Inc. in Houston. High-efficiency products “certainly have an advantage, everything else being equal. It’s definitely an important factor for residential rooftops.”

SunPower Corp., the second-largest U.S. panel manufacturer, makes the most efficient solar cells. Its products convert at least 22.4 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity and have reached 24.2 percent in lab tests, Helen Kendrick, a company spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

Conversion rates matter more for residential projects, where efficient panels can generate more power in less space, than for large, utility-scale plants, Molchanov said. “If you’re building a solar farm in the Mojave Desert, saving a few acres of land is not going to be all that crucial.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Martin in New York atcmartin11@bloomberg.net; Justin Doom in New York at jdoom1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net