Solar Sector 2008 Wrap Up: Isn’t It Ironic, Don’t You Think?

solar

If it weren’t for the economy, Solar in 2008 would have been killing it, both in VC investments and stock prices. We saw large sums invested into CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide) solar startups like Nanosolar, Miasole, and Solopower; bringing in over $200 million each. We also saw solar thermal (slightley less efficient than CIGS) startups like eSolar, Solel, and Brightsource bring in over $100 million a piece.
The state of California called for utilities to increasingly pull from clean energy sources. Brightsource took in 900MW, while SunPower and OptiSolar locked in 800MW worth of solar power purchase agreement from Northern California utility PG&E.
Where’s the irony you might ask? Take a look at the top six performing solar stocks and you’ll see why. Keep in mind, all six stocks more than doubled their price through 2007.
First Solar, despite their recent grid-parity milestone and impressive profit growth, came in 1st place, losing only 48% of their stock price since the beginning of 2008. Coming in second, SunPower lost 72% throughout the year.
The next four; Yingli Green Energy, Suntech Power, JA Solar, and Evergreen Solar all lost over 80% of their stock value through 2008. There is, however, an upside to this whole equation.
We’re already seeing bold moves from big players, some not even involved in solar power until recently. Conergy & GE are beginning investment into an India/Asia renewable energy trust that could potentially generate over $7 billion a year. Panasonic will be upping their solar game big time once they buy Sanyo for $9 Billion by way of a public tender offer. Most recenlty, Toshiba formed a group exclusively dedicated to building solar power plants. JA Solar will be supplying Solar Power, Inc. with 60MW worth of cells over 2009. Not to mention, Obama could potentially invest over $100 Billion into energy infrastructure and green job creation.
Although 2008 was rough, and 2009 quite possibly could be worse, Solar and all renewable energies might just be in luck. Joseph Muscat, Ernst & Young’s director of cleantech and venture capital, believes “…that the cleantech renewable energy sector will be the first to emerge when the market stabilizes.”