Since March 9: Dow Up 21%; Solar Up 56%

Dow's best 4-week spike since '33...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average just finished its best four-week streak since 1933. The Dow opened Monday, March 9 at 6626.95 then marched on to a stellar climb to 8017.19 at the end of trading today--a gaudy gain of 1390.24 points or 21%. The tech-concentrated NASDAQ grew from 1293.85 to 1621.87 points, 25.35% up. However, the 20SSI have to take the prize having gained 56.10% net combined since March 9.

GT Solar was the biggest gainer in solar gaining $2.50 a share for the week, over a 40% gain. SunTech, SatCon and Canadian Solar also had a good week of trading. It's disturbing mainstream media is either oblivious or doesn't want pick up on solar's thrust in the market. Three stocks, MEMC, Satcon and Trina Solar, exceeded their January 5 starts. For comparison's sake it would be timely to analyze the rise of the stocks in this index against the rapid demise of Chrysler and GM. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Investors seem to betting on an economic rebound and technology stocks despite grim employment reports. Some 663,000 jobs were lost in March nationwide for a total of 5.1 million since the recession began about 14 months ago. Reported unemployment jumped to 8.5% well exceeded the 8.1% projection.

Incentives for solar power installations and low panel prices plus the onset of spring is bolstering the PV industry. Just like housing, it's a great to time go solar if you have the cash or the credit. Signs of banks opening up are showing and this helps. Furthermore, one thing's for sure, utilities will raise rates if and when they can.

Week of March 30-April 3, 2009

	Monday Open	Friday Close	Up/Down	% Change	Close 1/5/09
Dow Jones DJIA	7776.18	8017.59	+241.41	+3.10%	8952.89
NASDAQ	1545.20	1621.87	+76.77	+4.96	1628.03
Akeena Solar AKNS	1.11	1.19	+.08	+7.20	2.28
Amtel Systems ASYS	3.46	3.27	-.19	-5.50	4.00
Applied Materials AMAT	11.23	11.81	+.58	+5.16	10.67
Canadian Solar CSIQ	5.76	6.73	+.97	+16.84	7.00
ECD (UniSolar) ENER	13.23	15.77	+2.54	+19.191	29.33
Entech Solar ENSL.OB	+.32	.245	-.075	-23.44	.28
Evergreen Solar ESLR	2.33	2.20	-.13	-5.58	3.60
First Solar FSLR	147.36	134.38	-12.98	-8.81	157.80
GT Solar Int. SOLR	4.22	6.72	+2.50	+40.76	4.00
JA Solar JASO	3.93	3.47	-.46	-11.71	5.09
Kyocera KYO	68.07	68.19	+.12	+.17	71.87
LDK Solar LDK	7.19	6.99	-.20	-2.79	14.84
MEMC Elect. WFR	18.38	18.69	+.31	+1.68	15.76
Renesola SOL	3.70	3.84	+.14	+3.78	5.15
Satcon SATC	1.63	1.88	+.25	+15.33	1.60
SolarFun SOLF	4.67	4.318	-.352	-7.54	6.12
SunPower SPWRA	25.30	24.67	-.63	-2.50	45.13
SunTech STP	11.65	14.00	+2.35	+20.17	13.55
Trina Solar TSL	12.33	11.15	-1.18	-9.58	10.09
Yingli YGE	6.15	6.78	+.63	+10.24	7.25
Percent change all 20 stocks this week:				+1.85%

Concentrating Solar Getting Hotter, Worth Watching

Higher efficiencies, lower cost per watt

It's a good time to be watching concentrating solar technologies. CPV is the natural next step to reducing installed cost per watt for mostly large-scale systems although some makers have residential possibilities.

The most common of the CPV technologies is the parabolic trough system which concentrate solar rays onto a receiver pipe located along the focal line of a trough shaped reflector. Nine such systems are successfully producing power in California's Mohave Desert achieving a daily solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 18%. Power towers are another method in which sun-tracking mirrors (heliostats) reflect sun rays to a receiver atop a tall tower. Both systems heat fluid which passes through a heat exchanger to boil water for a steam engine that generates electricity. A third system uses a parabolic dish to focus solar radiation on a receiver mounted at the focal point of the dish. Instead of producing steam, dish systems heat fluid for a Stirling heat engine which produces the electricity.

Three companies use silicon cells with variations of optics, mirrors and trackers to concentrate sunpower.

Solfocus of Mountain View, Ca combines high-efficiency solar cells with advanced optics providing high yields using just 1/1000 of the PV material used in standard PV cells. The Solfocus reflective optic system includes a primary mirror to capture sunlight and a secondary mirror and non-imaging optic to concentrate it at 500 suns onto high efficiency solar cells. The company contends 38%+ efficiency with their cells compared to the 13-19% standard range.
(www.solfocus.com)

Whitfield Solar of Reading, England says its CPV product competes with flat-plate PV in four ways: lower cost; lower weight; lower embodied energy; and requires lower-tech manufacturing processes. Using Fresnel lenses Whitfield uses just 2.5% of the silicon cells required of conventional panels. The Whitfield CPV unit includes built-in tracking which combines tilt-and-roll of the panel and troughs to find and follow the sun wherever it is installed. The unit can also withstand hail and wind and does not have to "park" flat in high winds. (www.whitfieldsolar.com)

Opel International of Shelton, Connecticut makes high and low concentration panels. The Mk-I High Concentration PV Panel uses a dual element refractive concentrator and triple-junction Boeing-Spectrolab solar cells to produce 36.7% efficiency with the same 25-year power output warranty of most flat-plate panels. The Mk-III Concentraing PV Panel is a low-cost panel designed for grid-tied systems in low to medium solar radiance. No cell efficiency is listed on the Mk-III's tech sheet. (www.opelinc.com)