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Financing PV-Start-Up Companies
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| moderator: Helge Hardacker, Quantum
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Business Angel activity in PV
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| Helge Hardacker, Quantum Board
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Presentation (PDF) |
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The first presentation by Mr. Hardacker
(Quantum Board) illustrated the attitude of Business
Angels investing in clean-technologies. Since Clean-tech
and especially PV are very attractive sectors, a
great number of amateur Angels start investing in
the PV market without knowing it well. This
situation caused an overevaluation and thus, higher
risk of investment. Mr. Hardacker showed the
different situations of the Angel markets in the US
and Europe. |
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Future areas of seed-investments in PV
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| Guido Agostinelli, European PV
Technology Platform |
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Presentation (PDF) |
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Mr. Agostinelli (PV Technology Platform)
highlighted the key R&D areas which need to be
addressed to make PV cost competitive. The growth-rate
of the market is so rapid that it overwhelms the
technology cycle times. The objective of the PV
Technology Platform is to address this issue and
promote joint research on a well selected issue in
order to achieve in time significant technology
improvement and industrial competition. |
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Mr. Rüter (Grazia Equity)
explained that unlike the Dot-com businesses, the PV sector
is a capital intensive market: large amounts of money are
required to expand the value chain, increase growth and
accomplish internationalization. Therefore fears of a
“bubble” in the current market situation are not valid. Mr.
Rüter then explained the different approaches on how to
raise money in Europe and the US. Larger investments have to
be carried out on start-ups in Europe, by VCs, Business
Angels as well as Strategic investors. Public discussions on
support schemes need to take place, because Europe has the
largest market today, however such situation could change
soon. In terms of financing, especially early stage VC and
private equity, new US-based companies will come up and the
market-size will increase in the US.
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4 innovating companies present their project to Venture
Capital investors
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Venture capital needs and activities in Europe
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| Sven Hansen, Good Energies |
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Presentation (PDF) |
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Mr. Hansen (Good Energies) explained how the
solar industry will experience a huge and steady
growth in the next 10 years; from EPIA’s
expectations of 7 GW to 20 GW of Analysts’ outlook.
On the mid and long-term the industry is expected to
continue with robust growth rates. On the short term
(2008 and 2009), markets will be characterized by
heavy volatility on the stock market. There will be
great opportunities for investment. Margins will
then drop in 2010 and 2011 when the PV market will
be already extremely competitive.
The PV sector is
comparable to other industries such as Mobile
Handsets, D-Ram, Flash Memory, LCD, where margins of
profit today are much lower than in the past. From
2008 to 2011, 300bn to 500bn USD investments are
expected to be realized only in the PV sector. In
2010 approximately 100bn investments in PV are
expected. 84bn coming from debt financing, 24.5bn
from Equity and a remaining 1.5bn from Venture
Capital investments. The biggest challenge will be
to raise finance from debt rather than from equity,
since due to concerns regarding support programmes,
banks are still not comfortable in lending money to
the solar sector. Overall the Solar Market is not
yet mature, and there is high volatility. Investors
will have to therefore understand the risks and to
be careful with evaluations. |
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Venture capital Investments in PV
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Moderator: Jenny Chase, New Energy Finance |
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Strategic venturing into PV from a corporate
perspective
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| Frans Van den Heuvel, Scheuten
Solar |
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Presentation (PDF) |
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Mr. Van den Heuvel (Scheuten Solar),
illustrated strategic venturing into PV from
Scheuten Solar’s perspective. Scheuten controls the
full value-chain: from upstream initiatives in
silicon supply to down- tream, where Scheuten serves
the market with both trade and turn key projects. |
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Panel discussion between Analysts & Industry: With the
participation of:
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Panel Discussion: Consistency and Confidence
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Moderator: Murray Cameron, EPIA Vice-President |
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Sven Kapell, Deutsche Bank |
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Mr. Kapell (Deutsche Bank) gave an overview
on how traders and analysts see the market. The
solar sector has been a very attractive sector for
banks and investors. However, the market has
suffered lately by the US recession. From an
investor’s perspective regarding solar stocks it
seems now to be a very attractive sector because it
is not related to a cycle. According to Mr. Kapell,
prices and margins will decrease in 2009 and the
volume of investments will consequently increase.
The earnings season is now over and looking into
2009 there is some uncertainty. However the long-term
situation will be attractive, especially after
amendments to the regulation, and the chance of
investors buying heavily into the sector is high. |
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Hendrik Hilgert, Citigroup Global Markets |
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Presentation (PDF) |
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Mr. Hilgert (Citibank), pointed out the
several factors which have recently driven PV share
prices. Overall he agreed that the outlook from a
market perspective will remain strong, but there
will be continued volatility in the short term. |
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Neil Perry, Solarcentury |
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Presentation (PDF) |
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Mr. Perry (Solar Century) illustrated Solar
Century’s experience in the British market, which is
basically not subsidized. In Europe, BIPV’s main
driver apart from premium tariffs (FiTs), is the
cost per m2 of the PV material, which in many cases
is lower than the ordinary building material costs.
Therefore BIPV is a niche market which will grow
very quickly in the upcoming future. Companies can
therefore develop markets in unfavorable regimes
like the UK simply by working with customers. |
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