Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Zeitgeist: "Munich Re to Insure Solar Park Operators Against Risk of Suppliers Going Bust"

In a world gone mad...
Here's our third or fourth Zeitgeist post this morning.
From the WSJ Europe's The Source blog:
Germany’s largest reinsurer Munich Re is to insure solar park operators against the risk of their suppliers going bust.

By assuming the risk of the panel makers’ insolvency, “major projects in particular have better access to financing,” said Munich Re board member Thomas Blunck.
Buying insurance in the anticipation the company you’re investing in might go bust doesn’t seem to bode well for the solar industry, but business credit insurance, or bad debt insurance, is relatively common in many industries.

Bankruptcy protection could become ever more relevant for the solar industry. Prices for solar panels, wafers, cells, and modules keep falling, and two German companies–Solar Millennium AG and Solon SE–recently declared insolvency....MORE
This might actually be a sign that the solar biz is nearing the bottom.
The insurance marketeers aren't nearly as fast out of the blocks as Wall Street product pushers who will have two ETF's and a bizarro ETN up and trading before yours truly can say "A trend appears to be emerging..."