Mixed Greens: ABB’s billion-dollar solar power play

Swiss industrial major ABB has moved to become the dominant solar PV inverter specialist, announcing plans to buy the number two market leader, Power-One, in a deal worth around $1,028 million. The world’s biggest supplier of industrial motors and power grids said on Monday it had agreed to pay $6.35 per share in cash for Power-One. PV Tech reports that ABB cited the rapidly growing market for solar inverters – the technology that allows solar power to be fed into electricity grids – as well as the opportunity to lead and innovate, as key aspects to its decision.

“Solar PV is becoming a major force reshaping the future energy mix because it is rapidly closing in on grid parity,” said ABB CEO Joe Hogan. “Power-One is a well-managed company and is highly regarded as a technology innovator focusing on the most attractive and intelligent solar PV product. The combination of Power-One and ABB is fully in line with our 2015 strategy and would create a global player with the scale to compete successfully and create value for customers, employees and shareholders.”

Power-One recently reported inverter shipments of 628MW in Q4 2012 and 3.6GW for the full-year, up 23% from 2011. In March, the company said it had passed the 1 million unit milestone for inverters sales, resulting in an installed base of over 10GW. ABB, which ranked sixth largest PV inverter supplier in 2013, according to GTM Research – has said it expects to generate sales of more than $US100 million in the PV inverter market in 2013.

Solar PV module revenues set to rebound

Good news is in sight for the solar PV market, with the latest NPD Solarbuzz 2013 Marketbuzz report predicting a rebound in revenues to $32 billion by 2017. The rebound is forecast to kick in after 2015, following a further 20 per cent decline in 2013 to $20.5 billion from $25.5 billion in 2012. PV module revenues will remain below 2012 levels during 2013 and 2014, says the report, but are set to bounce back from 2015 onward.

“Manufacturing over-capacity and declining revenues had a dramatic impact on the PV industry in 2012, and this trend will continue during 2013,” said Michael Barker, Senior Analyst at NPD Solarbuzz. “Share values of several publicly listed PV companies have been falling close to delisting levels, operating losses have been reported in the hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter, and many manufacturers are continuing to file for insolvency. Predicting how and when the solar PV industry will rebound to profitability has now become essential for all industry participants.”

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