SANTA BARBARA, California (Reuters) – Solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd will sell half its production of solar panels in Europe this year despite a pullback in government incentives in key markets there, Chief Executive Zhengrong Shi said on Wednesday.

The head of the Chinese company also forecast an impending global supply glut of solar panels, but said it would be temporary.

SANTA BARBARA, California (Reuters) – Solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd will sell half its production of solar panels in Europe this year despite a pullback in government incentives in key markets there, Chief Executive Zhengrong Shi said on Wednesday.

The head of the Chinese company also forecast an impending global supply glut of solar panels, but said it would be temporary.

SANTA MONICA, California (Reuters) – The success of SolarReserve’s first two U.S. solar power projects hinges on the survival of the U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantee program, the company’s chief executive said on Tuesday.

Santa Monica, California-based SolarReserve is awaiting approval of federal loan guarantees that will enable it to start building two solar thermal power plants with a combined price tag of about $1.5 billion.

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Veeco Instruments
Inc (VECO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) aims to supply at least half the global market for
LED tools this year and expects the Chinese subsidies that
underpin demand to stay intact through the first half of 2011,
Chief Executive John Peeler said on Friday.
Veeco, which along with Germany’s Aixtron AG (AIXGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) is
one of two global suppliers of equipment to manufacture LEDs,
increased its share of the global market to 45 percent last
year from 30 percent in 2009.
This year, Peeler said that growth would continue, albeit at
a slower pace.
“We’d like to get over 50 percent and stay over 50 percent,”
Peeler said, noting the company already had more than half the
Chinese and Korean markets.
Regarding analyst estimates that call for the company’s
share to reach 60 percent in two years, Peeler said there “is a
reasonable chance we can get to 60 percent.”
Industrywide, 800 LED tools were shipped last year. That
number could grow to as much as 1,000 this year, depending on
the rate of growth in China and Korea.
“It might be 900, it might be 1,000,” Peeler said. “It’s
really going to depend on how the growth continues throughout
the year.”
In recent years, Chinese local governments have subsidized
at least 70 percent of the price of LED tools, prompting dozens
of companies to start fabricating the semiconductor light
sources. As a result, well over half of Plainview, New
York-based Veeco’s business comes from China, Peeler said.
Market fears about the end of those incentives have plagued
shares in the LED sector, but Peeler said he expected the
subsidies to continue at least through the first half of the
year, with regions scaling back one by one.
“We believe they will end at different times in different
places,” Peeler said, adding that there was “a huge, really
strong sense of urgency on the part of Chinese customers to try
to build up a substantial business before these subsidies
end.”
Korean demand for LED manufacturing equipment should restart
in the second half of this year after falling off in 2010,
Peeler said.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; editing by Gunna Dickson)

((nichola.groom@thomsonreuters.com; +1-213-955-6755; Reuters
Messaging: nichola.groom.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: VEECO/

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A SunPower Corp project slated for Central California received county-level approval on Tuesday, overcoming a key hurdle on the road to building what could one day be one of the world’s largest power plants that create energy from the sun’s light.

The Planning Commission of San Luis Obispo county approved the project after a string of hearings during which the five-member commission weighed the project’s economic and environmental benefits against its impact on native species, local residents and the region’s rural landscape.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. solar company First Solar Inc lowered the top end of its 2011 sales forecast and said it cut prices in anticipation of solar subsidy cutbacks that could hamper demand in Europe, and its stock fell 3.8 percent after hours.

The world’s biggest solar company by market value, First Solar is creating a pipeline of solar power projects around the world as a channel for its cadmium telluride panels, which are the cheapest in the industry.

LOS ANGELES, Feb 24 (Reuters) – U.S. solar company First
Solar Inc (FSLR.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) lowered the top end of its 2011 sales
forecast and said it cut prices in anticipation of solar
subsidy cutbacks that could hamper demand in Europe, and its
stock fell 3.8 percent after hours.

The world’s biggest solar company by market value, First
Solar is creating a pipeline of solar power projects around the
world as a channel for its cadmium telluride panels, which are
the cheapest in the industry.

LOS ANGELES, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Chinese solar equipment
makers JA Solar Holdings Co Ltd (JASO.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Trina Solar Ltd
(TSL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported sharply higher fourth-quarter earnings and
revenue on Tuesday, but increased raw material costs pressured
JA Solar’s gross margins and sent its shares down more than 7
percent.

The companies also said shipments would jump at least 50
percent in 2011, and Trina’s stock rose more than 1 percent.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Solar power company SunPower Corp posted better-than-expected earnings and raised its forecast for the current quarter and year on strong demand in both its rooftop and power plant businesses, pushing the company’s shares up more than 6 percent.

SunPower, which makes solar panels that turn sunlight into electricity and also builds solar power systems, said its order books are already full for the year due to a pipeline of projects in the United States and Italy.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Energy monitoring and efficiency company EnerNOC Inc said it never engaged in a practice known as double counting as it looked to assuage investor concerns that have sent its stock down nearly 20 percent in the last week.

EnerNOC executives, on a conference call with analysts, disagreed with grid operator PJM’s allegations of double counting, saying the issue was that PJM was not willing to give customers credit for reducing power usage beyond their agreed-upon amount.