Euro Debt Crisis Slowing Solar Panel Installs, SMA Solar Says
November 14, 2011, 12:46 AM ESTBy Stefan Nicola
Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Europe’s debt crisis will cause global solar-panel demand to fall this year before returning to “moderate growth” in 2012, Germany’s biggest solar-power company by market value said.
Installations will be 19 gigawatts to 21 gigawatts, down from a record 23 gigawatts in 2010, according to SMA Solar Technology AG, which reported in a statement today that third- quarter profit beat analyst estimates.
“The euro and debt crisis is unsettling many end- customers, so investments in solar power plants are being postponed,” SMA Chief Executive Officer Pierre-Pascal Urbon said in the statement. “The banks’ significantly increased refinancing costs are changing the financing structures of large-scale solar projects.”
Urbon hedged his prediction of growth for next year, saying that "stagnation also can not be ruled out at this point."
SMA is the biggest maker of inverters, devices that connect electricity generated by panels to the transmission grid. It is among solar companies including Bonn-based Solarworld AG to have slumping sales in Europe, where Germany, Italy and France have cut premiums paid for power from photovoltaic panels over the past 12 months.
--Editors: Todd White, Amanda Jordan
To contact the reporter on this story: Stefan Nicola in Berlin at snicola2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net
