CONCENTRATORS CONSOLIDATING

CSP industry heads for consolidation
Jason Deign, 17 September 2010 (CSP Today)

"…In an industry that has seen more than its fair share of mergers and acquisitions in the last couple of years, [solar power plant developer] SkyFuel’s position as an independent player is becoming something of a rarity…

"…A good example of the vertically integrated corporations…[taking over independents] is Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering conglomerate, which other than producing steam turbines had little to do with the CSP market until last year…Then, in March 2009, it bought 29% of the Italian solar company Archimede Solar Energy, followed by the acquisition of Solel Solar Systems for US$418 million in October…"

Building this stuff is expensive. (click to enlarge)

"…Other recent examples of large corporations entering the CSP market include Chevron and Alstom partnering with BrightSource, MAN Ferrostaal joint venturing with Solar Millennium, and Areva’s February 2010 acquisition of Ausra for a reported $200 million…"

Whose logo will end up on this technology and when? (click to enlarge)

[Jenny Chase, a solar energy analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance:] “There is a realisation that solar thermal will need pretty heavy engineering and heavy commitments from banks…That will require support from massive engineering firms that can offer performance guarantees. Big companies like Areva are playing to these strengths and have also got big investment horizons…You are probably not going to make great profits out of CSP in the next two years unless you get a plant in Spain.”

[Rick LeBlanc, President/CEO, SkyFuel:] “In the wind industry, which is very mature, what happened is indicative of what will happen in utility-scale solar…“As the industry matured, three companies owned the market: GE, Siemens and Vestas. The reason is its large capital expenditure; it requires big balance sheets. A 120MW project for us is a $200 million order, and that is not technology venture capital, it’s production.”