Wednesday, February 10, 2010

German coalition agrees to delay solar cuts (FSLR; STP; YGE)

As we said in the Jan. 29 post "Germany aims to delay solar incentive cuts: sources say" (FSLR)"':
There's going to be a rush to get as many installations in as possible.
First Solar should benefit in the immediate term, they have the capacity and aren't shy about offering financing and/or rebates....
Yesterday FSLR regained a couple percent of the recent one-month 22.38% decline (intraday Jan. 7-Feb.8), the stock is flat in very early premarket trading.
From Reuters, Feb. 9:

* Solar incentive cut deeper than originally proposed

* Delay would benefit module, cell producers

* Agreement on farm land sites still needed

* No final decision yet

* Solar stocks gain worldwide (Recasts, adds analyst quote, updates stock prices

Germany's ruling coalition has agreed to delay cuts in solar power incentives by two months, parliamentary officials said on Tuesday, easing pressure on solar companies so they will have more time to sell components.

Support for new rooftop solar installations will be cut by 16 percent from June 1, said Hans-Peter Friedrich, parliamentary group leader for the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU). The original plan was to introduce the cuts on April 1.

Solar stocks around the globe gained on the news, with shares of Q-Cells (QCEG.DE), SolarWorld (SWVG.DE), First Solar (FSLR.O), Suntech (STP.N), SMA Solar (S92G.DE) and Yingli (YGE.N) up 1.8 to 4.4 percent.

"It would certainly be positive for the sector if that was the case. The sector would be able to benefit from stronger growth in April, May and June -- a strong seasonal time for installations in Germany," said Ardour Capital analyst Adam Krop....MORE