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The architects have just released designs for their new building, which won first prize in a competition organized by Malmö City. The 32,292-square-foot, landscaped complex will feature a 7,534-square-foot visitor center with a large covered area in front. Floating laboratories, didactic signage and other educational content will be distributed across the landscape, which will include different natural ecosystems.

Related: Malmö’s New Hyllie Train Station Hovers Like a UFO Over the Tracks

In addition to an array of solar panels that will harvest solar energy for heating, rainwater will be used to flush the center’s toilets. Inside, visitors will be able to engage with displays and interactive mechanisms that will provide information on the building’s heating, ventilation and water systems. This is intended to clarify the role of architecture in harvesting renewable energy.

The architects will collaborate with engineering firm Grontmij Malmö on the construction of the building, which is expected to cost 22 million SEK ($2.9 million).

+ NORD Architects

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JOHANNESBURG, —(eSolarEnergyNews)— SolarReserve, a leading global developer of utility-scale solar power projects and advanced solar thermal technology, today announced that the 96 megawatt (MW) photovoltaic (PV) Jasper solar power project completed construction and is fully operational, almost two months ahead of schedule. Jasper is located in South Africa’s Northern Cape in a solar park that also includes the 75 MW Lesedi solar power project which came online in May, and the proposed 100 MW Redstone concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) plant featuring SolarReserve’s industry-leading CSP technology with integrated energy storage.

The Jasper Project generated about 1 million man-hours during construction, peaking at over 800 on-site construction jobs. As part of the South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPPP), the project will set aside a percentage of total project revenues for Enterprise Development and Socio-Economic Development for the benefit of the local communities.

«In addition to helping South Africa meet its critical electricity needs, the Jasper Project will bring long lasting economic benefits to the region,» said SolarReserve’s CEO Kevin Smith. «We look forward to continuing this positive momentum and bringing value to South Africa through collaboration on further projects, including our upcoming CSP projects that will provide South Africa with clean, reliable and non-intermittent electricity, day and night.»

With over 325,000 PV modules, the Jasper Project will deliver 180,000 megawatt-hours of renewable electricity annually for South Africa residents – enough to power up to 80,000 households through a 20-year power purchase agreement with Eskom, the South African power utility company. Selected by the South Africa Department of Energy (DOE) in the second round of bids under the REIPPPP, the project also marked Google’s first renewable energy investment in Africa.

The project was developed by a consortium consisting of SolarReserve, the Kensani Group (an experienced empowerment investment player in South Africa), and Intikon Energy (a South African developer of renewable energy projects). Equity investment and ownership for the project was provided by a strong group of international and South African shareholders who jointly have experience in all aspects of development, funding and operations of solar energy projects. The equity investment shareholders include the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Intikon Energy, Kensani Capital Investments, Google, the PEACE Humansrus Community Trust, and SolarReserve with Rand Merchant Bank providing preference share equity. International law firm Baker McKenzie supported the project activities through its offices in Johannesburg and the United States, with Kensani Eaglestone Capital Advisory acting as financial adviser.

The move also may foretell a trend toward the establishment of more capacity where local content is an issue.

“By manufacturing cells and modules in Malaysia provides them with direct access to the U.S. market without any trade case questions asked,” observes Finlay Colville, the vice president of NPD SolarBuzz, in London. “Hanwha’s flagship in terms of excellence is the Q CELLS side, while the SolarOne operation can supply the domestic Chinese market,” he explains.

Seong Joo Ryu, the managing director of Hanwha Q CELLS Malaysia said at the time of the announcement, ”Hanwha Q CELLS Malaysia is ready to become the company‘s main hub for the sustainable mass production of high quality solar cells and modules at competitive costs.” The company also touted its combination of “German engineering” with “international production.” The Malaysian location selection also will provide production cycle time and logistics savings from the combining of cell and module manufacturing at one production site, the company adds.

Similarly, China’s Comtec recently announced plans to add 300 MW of wafer production in Malaysia, aimed largely at the U.S. market.

Moving some solar manufacturing capacity into new target countries is also a rising need in many emerging solar markets. “In a number of new markets in Latin America, the Mid-East and in Africa, there is a tendency with government-backed initiatives to have something in place related to domestic content, so to win big tenders and auctions in the region, it clearly helps if you have manufacturing locally,” says Colville.

“This was seen in South Africa with the first few tender runs, where there was a strong focus on employing people locally to assemble panels,” he notes. “Most of the local plants are just assembling modules, not making cells; it is designed just to get a foothold in the market,” he says. Among the latest in-country plant moves is a plan by Solar Cluster, the southwestern German industry association, to establish a manufacturing plant in Brazil.

Malaysia itself has ambitious plans for solar power development, with a target for its installed solar base of 220 MW by 2020. In June, Frost Sullivan reported that, “As per the Tenth Malaysia Plan, the country aims to account 5.5 percent or 985 MW of the total generating capacity through renewables by 2015, and 11.0 percent by 2020. Along with this, the country is also aiming to reduce carbon footprint to 40.0 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. To achieve these goals, the country introduced…a feed-in tariff policy in 2011.”

Hanwha Q CELLS expects construction of the module production facility at the Cyberjaya site to start in early 2015, and the four new production lines are expected to be online for testing in Q3 2015, with full production slated for early 2016. 

Lead image: Solar panels via Shutterstock

But the interesting element comes from the fact that many of these insolvent companies enjoy strong backing from their local governments. That means that once all the finances are cleaned up for these insolvent firms, they could actually become good longer-term assets for their new owners.

The short-term headaches for solar buyers are evident in the recent mixed fortunes for Shunfeng Photovoltaic (HKEx: 1165), which looked like a rising solar superstar when it purchased bankrupt former solar superstar Suntech. But Shenfeng’s fortunes have suffered a sharp setback in the last month, as the Suntech effect wears off and people realize the turnaround story could be long and difficult.

We’ll come back to the Shunfeng-Suntech story shortly, but first let’s look at the latest news that has the parent of GCL-Poly leading a group that will buy 66 percent of Chaori for 1.46 billion yuan ($240 million). The deal was part of a broader restructuring for Chaori, which made headlines this year when it became the first company in modern China to default on a corporate bond.

The restructuring plan was approved by the Shanghai Municipal First Intermediate People’s Court late last month, and the buyer group has pledged to return Chaori to profitability this year and re-list it in 2015. That kind of pledge means that the buyer group has probably received key government support for the restructuring and will find a way to meet its targets, even if that means using aggressive accounting to return to profitability and calling on state-owned investors to make the new IPO a success.

It’s important to note that this GCL-Poly deal has several key differences from the earlier Shunfeng-Suntech one. In this case the buyer is actually GCL-Poly’s privately held parent, Golden Concord Holdings, meaning the risk associated with taking over Chaori isn’t being shouldered by the publicly listed company. In addition, the GCL-Poly parent is part of a larger group that includes 8 other members, and thus Golden Concord will only own 30 percent of Chaori after the deal, equating to an investment of about $72 million.

So, how have GCL-Poly’s shares reacted to the news? The stock has dropped steadily over the last 6 weeks, and is now down 17 percent from a peak at the end of September. That performance mirrors Shunfeng, whose shares have lost nearly half of their value over the last 2 months after media reports emerged saying a major solar plant it was helping to build had run into trouble.

I suspect the magnitude of the Shunfeng sell-off was at least partly due to profit taking after a big run-up in the company’s shares on high hopes after the Suntech deal. And in fact, Shunfeng’s shares are now almost exactly at the same levels where they were at the start of this year before they embarked on a major rally.

So, the next bigger question becomes: What’s ahead for consolidators like GCL and Shunfeng, whose actions are motivated as much by local politics as by commercial factors? As I’ve said above, the political element of the equation means the stocks could come under short-term pressure as they deal with financial issues related to their purchases. But the goodwill they receive from local governments could be quite valuable over the longer term, meaning the stocks could see some strong upside potential once the current messes get sorted out.

Bottom line: Solar consolidators like GCL-Poly and Shunfeng will suffer short-term pressure due to difficult acquisitions, but could be longer-term beneficiaries as they earn government goodwill for their actions.

This blog was originally published on Young’s China Business Blog and was republished with permission.

Lead image: Mop via Shutterstock

ROSEVILLE, CA—(eSolarEnergyNews)—SPI Solar, a vertically-integrated photovoltaic solar developer, today announced that its newly established and wholly owned subsidiary, SPI Solar Power Engineering (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (Suzhou Xinwei), entered into two engineering, procurement and construction  agreements for an aggregate of 80 megawatts of solar projects in China. The two agreements call for Suzhou Xinwei to provide EPC services to two projects — one ground-based utility project of 70 MW in Huade County, Inner Mongolia Region and one distributed generation project of 10 MW in Shunde County, Guangdong Province.

Construction of the Huade Project is scheduled to begin in early December 2014 and be completed with grid connection by the end of July 2015. Construction of the Shunde Project is scheduled to begin in November 2014 and be completed by the end of December 2014 with grid connection.

“SPI continues to strengthen its leading position in developing solar projects in Inner Mongolia and across China,” said Xiaofeng Peng, Chairman of SPI. “We are especially pleased to announce our first EPC contract for a DG project in Guangdong Province, one of the most important and rapidly growing markets for DG projects in China.”

SAN JOSE, CA —(eSolarEnergyNews)—  SunPower today expanded its product portfolio for its residential customers with the acquisition of SolarBridge Technologies, Inc., a leader in integrated microinverter technologies for the solar industry.  SunPower will utilize this technology, which converts direct current (DC) generated by a single solar photovoltaic panel into alternating current (AC), to develop next generation microinverters for use with SunPower’s high efficiency solar panels.  Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Based in Austin, Texas, SolarBridge has developed an innovative, highly reliable microinverter solution for roof-ready AC solar panels.  Panels with these factory-integrated microinverters can be directly installed, eliminating the need to mount or assemble additional components on the roof or the side of a home.

«SunPower’s acquisition of SolarBridge and its high performance microinverter technology will allow us to develop a differentiated product specifically optimized for our high efficiency solar panels,» said Tom Werner, SunPower president and CEO.  «This is the beginning of integrating electronics into our world-class solar panel technology. In this case, the combined result will provide our residential customers with an elegant, reliable and complete solution that fits their home specifications, including system design flexibility, ease of installation and maintenance and improved overall aesthetics.»

With AC solar panels, the power generated by the solar system is optimized and monitored at each solar panel to ensure maximum energy production.  They provide design and installation flexibility, and are suited for a wide variety of system and rooftop configurations.  AC solar panels also help reduce soft costs associated with residential photovoltaic solar installations, including labor, permitting and customer acquisition costs, which represent a significant portion of the overall system cost.  SolarBridge microinverter technology offers a design life in excess of 25 years.

GUELPH, ONTARIO —( eSolarEnergyNews)— Canadian Solar, one of the world’s largest solar power companies, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Canadian Solar Solutions Inc. will provide 4 megawatt («MW») / 2.76 megawatt/hour («MWh») of stationary on-grid bulk energy storage to Independent Electricity System Operator («IESO») to support the Ontario grid.

The 4 MW project will provide an energy storage solution for ancillary services applications in Ontario by leveraging Canadian Solar’s extensive project development expertise and success in the Canadian energy market.  In addition, this project was one of twelve selected by IESO in a competitive application process that was completed in July 2014.  Canadian Solar will be providing reactive power, voltage support and bulk energy storage services to the IESO using stationary lithium battery technology.  Canadian Solar will provide operations and maintenance to IESO for a period of 36 months.

«We are pleased to have been selected by the IESO on their energy storage project within Ontario,» said Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar Inc.  «This marks a new milestone for Canadian Solar as we make further progress on our move forward from being a module manufacturer to becoming a total energy solution provider. We are now established as one of the industry’s fastest growing companies, with one of the largest project pipelines, while expanding our business model by adding bulk energy on-grid battery storage to our portfolio.  We look forward to working with IESO in the years ahead,» said Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar Inc.