WA-based solar PV company Solco is looking to take advantage of the wreckage caused by the abrupt changes in rooftop solar incentives, raising $4 million to fund a war chest to prey on weakened competitors. Director Ian Campbell, a former Coalition environment minister, said the recent collapse of SolarShop and the suspension of manufacturing at Silex reflected the shakeout in the industry. “Rather than look for acquisitions and raise money when we need it, we want to be in a strategic position to take advantage of acquisitions when the opportunities arise,” he said. “We will look at anything in the food chain.”
Solco has focused on the wholesale market, importing and distributing solar panels, but has now moved into the project development business, reflected in a recent $850,000 contract to build a 250kW array across seven buildings in the western NSW city of Parkes. Campbell says the commercial market is looking strong, with a big increase in inquiries from sporting organisations and grounds, councils and corporate customers. “In many areas of Australia it is already breaking even. We think the market will take off, to be frank, as energy prices rise and the cost of solar falls. It makes a lot of sense to lock in the price.”
However, Campbell says the household market has slumped badly, possibly with the exception of the Queensland market, the only state to leave its feed-in tariff untouched. The 2-for-7 rights issue is priced at 7c a share (Solco shares traded at 9c before the announcement and have traded as high as 13c in the past year – it has a market capitalisation of around $17 million). The issue is underwritten by Investorfirst Securities.
Gas storage silver lining
AGL Energy officially opened its Silver Springs Underground Gas Storage project at a launch event at the Queensland site on Monday. This follows AGL's deal with QGC Pty Ltd to develop a gas storage project at the depleted Silver Springs/Renlim gas reservoir in the Bowen Surat Basin in central Queensland – and asset AGL acquired as part of its acquisition of Mosaic Oil in October 2010. The arrangements will allow QGC to store gas in the reservoir while it develops its Queensland Curtis LNG Project, which will convert coal-seam gas into liquefied natural gas for Asia-Pacific markets. In turn, AGL will provide QGC with gas storage services for up to seven years until 2018. AGL has agreed to deliver gas to QGC from the gas storage project by swapping gas which QGC is required to deliver to AGL at Berwyndale under AGL’s existing long term gas sale agreement with QGC.
AGL CEO Michael Fraser said the facility would provide AGL with significant long-term value as industry focus shifts to the international LNG market, and would allow AGL to manage demand and mitigate interruptions of gas supply, a key risk in coal seam gas production. “The project location, near the Wallumbilla gas hub in Queensland, means that we can service gas markets located at Brisbane, Gladstone, Mt Isa, and south through the Moomba gas hub," Fraser said. "This project will offer AGL with significant gas supply flexibility and commercial opportunities for years to come.”
Raising the roof on solar
Tata Steel and Dyesol have announced plans to fast track the delivery of their technology integrating dye-sensitised solar cells (DCS) into steel roofing – a project they hope will help solar power to reach grid parity without relying on feed-in tariffs. Tata Steel and Dyesol have been working on the industrialisation of DSC on steel at the PV Accelerator facility in Shotton, North Wales, since the completion in July of a Welsh government supported project. The plan now is to bring the technology's delivery date forward by a year, creating what the company describes as the "biggest and the best DSC modules" in under four months. The team has been constructing a DSC 20 m2 roof array that will be demonstrated and monitored at the Sustainable Building Envelope Centre (SBEC) test bed facility on the Shotton site. This will demonstrate the feasibility of manufacturing a module that can be integrated and installed as an operational array. At the same time, the team has more than doubled the power output while eliminating costly silver conductors.
WA-based solar PV company Solco is looking to take advantage of the wreckage caused by the abrupt changes in rooftop solar incentives, raising $4 million to fund a war chest to prey on weakened competitors. Director Ian Campbell, a former Coalition environment minister, said the recent collapse of SolarShop and the suspension of manufacturing at Silex reflected the shakeout in the industry. “Rather than look for acquisitions and raise money when we need it, we want to be in a strategic position to take advantage of acquisitions when the opportunities arise,” he said. “We will look at anything in the food chain.”
Solco has focused on the wholesale market, importing and distributing solar panels, but has now moved into the project development business, reflected in a recent $850,000 contract to build a 250kW array across seven buildings in the western NSW city of Parkes. Campbell says the commercial market is looking strong, with a big increase in inquiries from sporting organisations and grounds, councils and corporate customers. “In many areas of Australia it is already breaking even. We think the market will take off, to be frank, as energy prices rise and the cost of solar falls. It makes a lot of sense to lock in the price.”
However, Campbell says the household market has slumped badly, possibly with the exception of the Queensland market, the only state to leave its feed-in tariff untouched. The 2-for-7 rights issue is priced at 7c a share (Solco shares traded at 9c before the announcement and have traded as high as 13c in the past year – it has a market capitalisation of around $17 million). The issue is underwritten by Investorfirst Securities.
Gas storage silver lining
AGL Energy officially opened its Silver Springs Underground Gas Storage project at a launch event at the Queensland site on Monday. This follows AGL's deal with QGC Pty Ltd to develop a gas storage project at the depleted Silver Springs/Renlim gas reservoir in the Bowen Surat Basin in central Queensland – and asset AGL acquired as part of its acquisition of Mosaic Oil in October 2010. The arrangements will allow QGC to store gas in the reservoir while it develops its Queensland Curtis LNG Project, which will convert coal-seam gas into liquefied natural gas for Asia-Pacific markets. In turn, AGL will provide QGC with gas storage services for up to seven years until 2018. AGL has agreed to deliver gas to QGC from the gas storage project by swapping gas which QGC is required to deliver to AGL at Berwyndale under AGL’s existing long term gas sale agreement with QGC.
AGL CEO Michael Fraser said the facility would provide AGL with significant long-term value as industry focus shifts to the international LNG market, and would allow AGL to manage demand and mitigate interruptions of gas supply, a key risk in coal seam gas production. “The project location, near the Wallumbilla gas hub in Queensland, means that we can service gas markets located at Brisbane, Gladstone, Mt Isa, and south through the Moomba gas hub," Fraser said. "This project will offer AGL with significant gas supply flexibility and commercial opportunities for years to come.”
Raising the roof on solar
Tata Steel and Dyesol have announced plans to fast track the delivery of their technology integrating dye-sensitised solar cells (DCS) into steel roofing – a project they hope will help solar power to reach grid parity without relying on feed-in tariffs. Tata Steel and Dyesol have been working on the industrialisation of DSC on steel at the PV Accelerator facility in Shotton, North Wales, since the completion in July of a Welsh government supported project. The plan now is to bring the technology's delivery date forward by a year, creating what the company describes as the "biggest and the best DSC modules" in under four months. The team has been constructing a DSC 20 m2 roof array that will be demonstrated and monitored at the Sustainable Building Envelope Centre (SBEC) test bed facility on the Shotton site. This will demonstrate the feasibility of manufacturing a module that can be integrated and installed as an operational array. At the same time, the team has more than doubled the power output while eliminating costly silver conductors.