QUICK NEWS, April 10: WILL BUFFETT BUY A BANKRUPT CHINESE SOLAR MAKER?; BIG NEW TEXAS WIRES FOR WIND ALMOST READY; SETTING THE SMART METER STANDARD

WILL BUFFETT BUY A BANKRUPT CHINESE SOLAR MAKER? Suntech Jumps On Buffett Buyout Report...

April 9, 2013 (EQ International)

“Chinese solar manufacturers rallied in New York, led by Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP), on a report that billionaire Warren Buffett may be interested in buying the company forced into bankruptcy after defaulting on debt. The Bloomberg China-US Equity Index (CH55BN) of the most-traded Chinese companies in the U.S. rose…

“…Suntech jumped as much as 28 percent after a news service owned by Hong Kong Economic Times said Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. may buy the solar panel maker, citing an unidentified person. Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) surged the most in two months. SouFun Holdings Ltd. (SFUN) slumped a second day.”

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“Suntech, which defaulted on a $541 million bond repayment last month, has lost 18 percent since Chinese banks filed an insolvency petition for its main unit March 20. Tina Potthoff, a spokeswoman for MidAmerican in Des Moines, Iowa, said by e-mail that the company doesn’t comment on speculation…The rumor Buffett is interested in buying Suntech…is helping drive gains in solar equities...

“…Suntech, LDK Solar Co. and Yingli Green Holding Co…are among the top 10 worst performers this year on the China-US gauge amid a supply glut and alternative-energy subsidy cuts in Europe…[Suntech] was the world’s biggest solar-panel maker in 2011…MidAmerican has invested in solar power projects in California and Arizona and wind farms in Illinois. Chief Financial Officer Patrick Goodman said in November that the company was targeting renewable energy deals, in part because utility valuations were high…”

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BIG NEW TEXAS WIRES FOR WIND ALMOST READY West Texas wind power transmission project nears completion

James Oborne, 5 April 2013 (Dallas Morning News)

“…Designed to transmit enough electricity to power half of Texas in the spring months…[3,500 miles of high-voltage transmission lines connecting wind farms in western Texas with electricity-hungry cities to the east] is on schedule to finish [aftet eight years of planning and building] by the end of the year. But with cost overruns and fewer wind generation projects than originally projected, the $6.8 billion soon to be borne by ratepayers is again falling under criticism…Construction costs are estimated at almost 40 percent above the $4.9 billion originally budgeted…[due to] a spike in steel prices and longer routes for the lines because of difficulties in negotiating with landowners…

“Further complicating matters, the transmission lines were built to carry loads of more than 18,000 megawatts, far beyond the generation capacity at the time, under the expectation that the project would accelerate wind farm creation in West Texas…So far around 9,000 megawatts of wind generation capacity has come on line in the region…[because] low wholesale electricity prices from the booming natural gas market and difficulty getting financing for wind farm projects [has slowed wind growth]…”

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“There’s hope the new lines [which could cost ratepayers about $6 per month] could spur another wind power boom…Right now there is a bottleneck on the existing transmission lines, at times forcing wind farms around West Texas and the Panhandle not only to lower their prices but to pay the utilities to take their electricity…

“Earlier this year Google invested $200 million in a 161-megawatt wind farm in the Panhandle, and advocates say they expect more deals once the lines are fully operational. Already, wind companies have 20,000 megawatts worth of projects under study in Texas, according to ERCOT. And while history suggests maybe a quarter of those will actually be built, regulators and the industry itself are confident eventually generation will meet the capacity of the new lines…”

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SETTING THE SMART METER STANDARD ZigBee for Smart Energy; Market Dynamics for ZigBee SEP 1.X and the Transition to SEP 2.0 for Smart Meters, Home Area Networks, Programmable Communicating Thermostats, Load Control Devices, In-Home Displays, and Gateways

1Q 2013 (Navigant Research)

“A widely deployed wireless communications technology, ZigBee is the basis for radios and software embedded in millions of smart meters and other smart energy devices, such as programmable communicating thermostats and gateways.

“The latest version of the ZigBee Smart Energy Profile (SEP 2.0) software, expected to become commercially available later in 2013, represents an important shift: it will…[internet-based and] enable ZigBee devices to communicate with non-ZigBee devices, such as those using Wi-Fi or HomePlug. This opens up a new world for ZigBee, and poses market risks as other home networking technologies contend for relevance in the energy management sector.”

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“ZigBee still has momentum…Some leading U.S. utilities have deployed ZigBee-enabled meters, and have encouraged customers to purchase home area network (HAN) devices that can connect to those smart meters for improved energy management. Around the world, ZigBee smart meter deployments are taking hold…in countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom…

“Navigant Research forecasts that the worldwide installed base of ZigBee-enabled devices will grow from 39.5 million at the end of 2012 to 219.2 million devices by 2020, representing a compound annual growth rate of 24%...”

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