Everyone is going Solar
Himanshu Pandya / December 25th, 2006
source: financialnirvana.com
http://energy.financialnirvana.com/2006/12/25/everyone-is-going-solar/
According to DigiTimes, Taiwan based AU Optronics Corp. (NYSE: AUO) is getting into the Solar business. The company is said to have recruited a team of specialists to produce thin-film solar cells. AU Optronics Corp. engages in the design, development, manufacture, assemble, and marketing of thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels and other flat panel displays. The solar cell manufacturing is similar in nature and would only require an investment of $7.7 million to produce thin-film solar cells on a glass substrate base line.
This follows Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT) decision to get into the Solar business. Cypress Semiconductor (NYSE: CY) has already gone solar via Sunpower Corp (Nasdaq: SPWR).
Boeing (NYSE: BA) also has a Solar arm called Spectrolab Inc. which recently announced that it has surpassed 40% efficiency in converting sun’s energy into electricity. The 40% efficiency rate is the highest ever achieved so far.
We already know that big guns like General Electric (NYSE: GE), British Petroleum (NYSE: BP), Shell (NYSE: RDS-B), Sharp and Kyocera (NYSE: KYO) are already into solar business.
We also have a number of Chinese companies led by Suntech Power (NYSE: STP) and Germany’s Q-Cells.
Right now the Solar business only makes a very small percentage of the revenue of above mentioned companies, except Suntech Power and Sunpower Corp. However, all these companies, from big to small realize the potential of Solar energy and are looking forward to the future.
Nevertheless, if you want to get in the solar game the best options are the two pure plays, Suntech Power (NYSE: STP) and Sunpower Corp. (Nasdaq: SPWR), which also happen to be profitable.