Solar projects on track for approval by California will double the state's ability to generate electricity from solar power, state officials say.

Since August, four major solar projects including a 7,000-acre solar farm billed as the world's largest have won approval from the California Energy Commission, which is expected to OK two more this week, USA Today reported Wednesday.

The solar farms, which use mirrors to concentrate the sun's power to produce heat and generate electricity, could eventually produce enough electricity to power 675,000 homes, the newspaper said.

California has ample sunshine and will need it to meet its big renewable-energy goals. Last week state regulators passed measures requiring one-third of electricity sold in California to come from renewable sources by 2020.

The size of the projects shows how aggressively the state is embracing solar power.

"These are the first projects of this size in the U.S.," Rhone Resch, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, says. "They're a sign to the rest of the country that solar is here, not a technology of the future."

California's aggressive push for solar is also being driven by an approaching federal deadline for stimulus funds.

Renewable-energy projects must be started by Dec. 31 to get federal cash grants in lieu of tax credits equal to 30 percent of the projects' costs, USA Today reported.

earlier related report

Half of German solar firms could go under
Berlin (UPI) Sep 29, 2010 -Only half of Germany's 50 major solar energy companies will survive the accelerating price war in the photovoltaic industry, a market study compiled by consultants Roland Berger indicates.

Due to oversupply and cheaper production, the consultants forecast prices for PV products to drop by 15 percent per year until 2015. Because of a "threefold threat of low-cost competition from Asia, declining sales at home and a dwindling presence in the world's growth markets" many German firms will have to offshore their production to low-cost regions or face bankruptcy, the analysts write.

"The photovoltaic market is getting tougher and tougher," Torsten Henzelmann, a green-tech expert at Roland Berger, said in a statement accompanying the release of the study. "The German PV companies have excellent technological capabilities, but they are not properly prepared for the difficult market climate."

Henzelmann added he expects that "only about half of Germany's 50 or so larger solar power companies will survive in the next five years."

The German government this year agreed to reduce subsidies for rooftop panels by 16 percent. The decision helped the German industry to a sales boom, as private customers ordered panels in droves to beat feed-in-tariff reductions set for July. Sales dropped afterward, however, and many German firms are trying to enter emerging markets in North America, India and China to make up for lost business at home.

Not all of them will succeed, Roland Berger says.

The study found that only six of the 16 largest German solar power companies have healthy finances and a strong strategic position when facing growing competition. The remaining firms are ill-prepared, mostly because they lack production size, market access and prestige.

"Few German vendors have a brand that customers recognize," Henzelmann said.

Small and medium-sized companies could suffer as the pressure to grow in production and sales increases.

"Since only a few German companies can achieve the necessary critical mass on their own, partnerships in the form of mergers or cooperative ventures make a lot of sense," Roland Berger writes in a news release.

Germany's Q-Cells, once the world's largest solar cell producer, during the global recession lost billions of dollars.

Thanks to the domestic sales boom in the first half of this year, the company expects a positive result for 2010. However, Q-Cells shares are trading at their lowest in years, with many analysts giving them a "sell' rating.

Apparently aware of the consolidation course in the industry, Q-Cells Chief Executive Officer Nedim Cen this week raised fresh capital on the stock market in a bid to transform the company into a full-service PV provider.

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