QUICK NEWS, October 15: IT’S FINAL – A TARIFF ON IMPORTED CHINESE SOLAR; ALABAMA BUYS MORE MIDWEST WIND; A RESPONSE TO PEAKING POWER DEMAND

IT’S FINAL – A TARIFF ON IMPORTED CHINESE SOLAR Breaking News: Final Commerce Determination on Chinese Solar Cell Tariffs; The legal wrangling of the U.S. solar trade war is coming to an end. What is the aftermath?

Eric Wesoff, October 10, 2012 (Greentech Media)

“…[T]he Department of Commerce issued its final determinations on the extent of the countervailing duties and anti-dumping duties against imports of billions of dollars of solar cells from China…The effective rate on Suntech has gone up a few percentage points, down four percent for Yingli and Canadian Solar with Trina down 13 percentage points from the preliminary numbers…Commerce recommended anti-subsidy duty percentages of 14.78 percent for imports made by Suntech, 15.97 percent Trina Solar and 15.24 percent for all other Chinese manufacturers…

“The petitioner for these investigations is SolarWorld Industries America, part of a German firm with operations in Oregon…[T]he bottom line according to an analysis by GTM Research, is that the tariffs will have minimal imact on the price of solar in the U.S. It is also unlikely that SolarWorld's tenuous competitive position will be improved by the tariffs imposed on Chinese companies. SolarWorld's most recent earnings call indicated high costs, low margins, and difficult losses and debt. Another outcome is a trade war in the other direction with China putting a tariff on polysilicon from the U.S. along with the EU imposing tariffs on Chinese solar panels.”

click to enlarge

“GTM Research used Trina Solar as a case study and asked -- what are the cost and price impacts going forward? …[Trina expected a module cost] around $0.78 per watt. For U.S. shipments, we expect that 100 percent of Trina’s U.S.-bound cells will be obtained via tolling from Taiwan…[imposing an additional] $0.08 per watt and a cost impact of 11 percent…[for] a U.S. ASP of $0.86 per watt, which is still 6 percent below the Q1 ASP.

“Though tolling cells through Taiwan does impose a slight cost increase on manufacturers, it does not prohibit them from pricing modules well below their domestic competitors…[W]e expect pricing to continue falling over the course of the year, both globally and in the U.S…Next month the ITC will announce its final decision on whether to lock the tariffs into place…”

Tweet

ALABAMA BUYS MORE MIDWEST WIND Buffalo Dunes Wind Project in Rural Kansas is the Second TradeWind Energy Project that Provides for the Delivery of Low-cost Energy to Alabama

October 10, 2012 (TradeWind Energy)

“TradeWind Energy, LLC and Alabama Power Company have entered into a long-term…agreement that provides for the delivery of low-cost electricity from wind-rich Kansas across five states to communities in Alabama…The 20-year power purchase agreement…for 202 MW and all associated renewable energy credits (RECs) was approved by the Alabama Public Service Commission…

“TradeWind Energy’s plan allows flexibility for construction of a wind project between 200 and 300 MW. The Project will be constructed across approximately 42,000 acres and hosted by over 120 [Kansas] landowners…Alabama Power has the flexibility to use the electricity from the wind project to serve its customers and retire the RECs, or it can sell the electricity and the RECs, together or separately, to third parties.”

click to enlarge

“The Buffalo Dunes Wind Project will represent an approximately $300 million investment resulting in significant economic benefit to the state of Kansas and it will help to stabilize and lower energy costs over the life of the contract for customers on the other end of the line in Alabama. An estimated 150 new jobs will be created during the construction phase of the project with the fully operational project requiring about15 new full-time workers. Commercial operation is anticipated in December 2013…

“The Buffalo Dunes project… [is the third] developed by TradeWind Energy that will deliver energy from the Midwest into the Southeastern United States…[and] over the past 18 months TradeWind has entered long term power purchase agreements that will lead to the construction of four wind projects in Kansas and Oklahoma that combined will deliver about 800 MW of energy to utility customers in the 10 states served by Alabama Power, Tennessee Valley Authority and Western Farmers Electric Cooperative.”

Tweet

A RESPONSE TO PEAKING POWER DEMAND Residential Demand Response; Direct Load Control, Time-of-Use, Critical Peak Pricing, and Peak-Time Rebate Programs for Residential Customers: Global Market Analysis and Forecasts

4Q 2012 (Pike Research/Navigant)

“Demand response (DR) is increasingly becoming an important part of the resource mix for utilities and grid operators, especially in managing peak electricity demand. While both the commercial and industrial (C&I) and residential sectors contribute to peak demand, households are responsible for a significant amount of such demand…

“…DR programs that utilities offer are essential tools for managing demand and are a key component of governmental energy policy…[U]tilities in other countries are gradually realizing the potential benefits to themselves as well as their customers by introducing DR programs to their residential customers.”

click to enlarge

“Many have already developed such programs, especially in Europe, while others are initiating pilots to find out for themselves if they can achieve their load reduction objectives as well as a return on their investments from DR programs…In particular, they are anxious to determine the effectiveness of the two major types of programs: conventional direct load control (DLC) and price-based programs…

“Despite their strong value proposition, however, residential price-based DR programs are still in their infancy. Pike Research estimates that there are nearly 11 million households globally that are currently enrolled in DR programs. With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.6%, that number of households is forecast to more than double, to over 23.5 million, by 2018…”

Tweet