TPT March 2010

G lobal M arketplace

by the announcement, on 16 November, from the largest Chinese solar panel manufacturer, Suntech Power, that it plans to open its first American plant. This marks the first time that a Chinese solar company will have erected a manufacturing plant in the US. Moreover the project – set for the Phoenix, Arizona, area – is on an accelerated schedule. Intended to fabricate panels from solar cells shipped from China, it is scheduled to go into production in the third quarter of this year. The cells themselves have an American provenance. They contain substantial amounts of polysilicon manufactured at a factory in Texas. Roger Efird, a managing director of Suntech, told Kate Galbraith of the New York Times that the cost of shipping was an important factor in the decision to put up a factory on American soil. Solar panels, with substantial amounts of glass and aluminium, are heavy. (“Chinese Solar Panel Firm to Open Plant in Arizona,” 17 November) Mr Efird said, “As the price of solar panels has reduced dramatically in the last 12 months, the shipping costs have become a larger and larger portion of the overall cost of getting these projects to market.” Suntech estimates that it already has about 12% to 13% of the growing market in the US, and has hopes of achieving 20% by the end of 2010. In the view of an analyst consulted by Ms Galbraith, this goal is not extravagant. Jesse Pichel, of the investment banking firm Piper Jaffray (Minneapolis, Minnesota), pointed out that some federal buildings may stipulate American-made panels.

Accordingly, the Arizona move represents a “very smart strategy” on Suntech’s part to offer a ‘Made in the USA’ product in the American market. Suntech did not disclose the estimated cost of building the plant. But Mr Efird told the Times that the company has applied for a 30% investment tax credit under that part of Washington’s economic stimulus package intended to encourage solar-power entrepreneurs in the US. Pipelines › Plans for the Nabucco pipeline, intended to transport natural gas from Central Asia and the Middle East to Europe, are said to be on track. Hungary’s representative for the project, Mihaly Bayer, told the Budapest-based business daily Világgazdaság [14 January] that

the financing consortium which would operate the pipeline has been assembled, and that drafts of the exact route of the Nabucco were expected to be completed within weeks. An environmental review would follow.

The Nabucco pipeline under construction