China to offer tax breaks to solar power manufacturers

SHANGHAI, Sept 29 | Sun Sep 29, 2013 12:29pm EDT

SHANGHAI, Sept 29 (Reuters) - China's Ministry of Finance announced it will offer tax breaks to manufacturers of solar power products on Sunday, as China moves to support an industry still struggling to deal with massive overcapacity and weak demand.

The ministry said in a short statement on its website that producers of solar power products will receive immediate refunds of 50 percent of value-added taxes.

The National Development and Reform Commission provided subsidies for solar power stations in late August.

"China's bloated photovoltaic industry still faces a grim outlook as many companies are deeply mired in debts," said a report on the official Xinhua news service discussing the announcement.

It cited data from the China Renewable Energy Society saying that the country's top 10 solar panel makers are up to 100 billion yuan ($16.34 billion) in debt, with a debt to asset ratio above 70 percent on average.

Beijing has said it wants to consolidate the industry, but the sector continues to enjoy protection at the central and local level; the latter is particularly strong because solar power companies are frequently major employers.

China's LDK Solar Co Ltd partly defaulted on a bond payment in April, then failed to meet another payment on time in August.

China's Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd said Chief Executive David King had resigned from the company in mid September, weeks after three directors left amid the solar panel maker's efforts to restructure its debt.

Suntech's Chinese lenders dragged its unit Wuxi Suntech into insolvency proceedings after it defaulted on $541 million in bonds after the business was hit by a glut in solar panels.

View the original article here

IKEA to sell solar panels from all UK stores

LONDON, Sept 30 | Sun Sep 29, 2013 7:01pm EDT

LONDON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - IKEA, the world's biggest furniture retailer, is to sell solar panels at its British stores, the first time it has offered the devices and marking an attempt to tap growth in the heavily subsidised green energy market.

The Sweden-based company, best known for cheap basics such as its Billy bookcases and Ektorp sofas, plans to offer solar panel packages at all of its 17 British stores within the next 10 months.

It said the move follows a successful pilot project at its Lakeside store to the east of London, which sells one photovoltaic (PV) system almost every day.

Britain offers subsidies to encourage the takeup of PV panels - which harness the power of sunlight and transform it into electricity - in a bid to boost greener energy production and help it meet legally-binding targets to cut carbon emissions.

A solar panel owner receives subsidies for generating solar-sourced electricity as well as exporting excess power into the grid. An average semi-detached house with a south-facing roof would earn as much as 770 pounds ($1,200) a year through subsidies and savings on energy bills, an IKEA case study showed.

IKEA's offer of panels made by China's Hanergy Holding Group Ltd, a power producer and manufacturer of thin-film PV panels, involves a minimum spend of 5,700 pounds for which customers get 18 panels which should break even within roughly seven years.

"We know that our customers want to live more sustainably and we hope working with Hanergy to make solar panels affordable and easily available helps them do just that," said Joanna Yarrow, IKEA's head of sustainability in the UK and Ireland.

Britain's solar market is small compared with green energy leaders such as Germany and Spain, but it has posted regular growth, with year-on-year installations rising 25 percent in September to 1.7 gigawatts.

IKEA customers will receive a package that includes in-store consultation, installation and maintenance of the panels, which are made in Germany.

The Swedish company has its own ambitious clean energy target, aiming to source at least 70 percent of the group's energy needs from wind and solar power by 2015 and 100 percent by 2020.

IKEA already owns wind farms in various European countries and has placed solar panels on its stores, warehouses and factories. Hanergy Holding controls Hong Kong-listed Hanergy Solar.

View the original article here