Since bursting on to the solar scene in 2009, thin film aspirant Hanergy has been adept at making headlines. It hasn't however been quite as adept at making or selling solar modules, it now appears. The UK's Financial Times (FT) newspaper published a report yesterday in which it concludes that it has uncovered "some unconventional practices behind Hanergy Group's soaring fortunes." The FT has poured over the Hanergy Thin Film Power (HTF) Group's financial statements and found that "much of the growth comes from within." The FT reveals that the vast majority of HTF's reported revenue since 2010 has come from sales to Hanergy Group, which itself owns 73% of HTF's shares. HTF sells PV manufacturing equipment to Hanergy Group. The equipment component of its business is ostensibly that of Apollo Energy, which was the supplier of amorphous silicon (a-Si) equipment to Hanergy Group under the latter's initial plan to install many GWs of a-Si manufacturing capacity across nine factories in China. Hanergy Group acquired Apollo in 2009. Despite these "unconventional practices" HTF's fortunes are riding high on solar stock indexes. In the latest Bloomberg Solar Energy Index, set to be published in the February edition of pv magazine, HTF's shares are shown to have grown 44% MoM, "due to its diversified business model," notes the Trout Group's Adam Kropp. HTF accounts for a whopping 11.79% of Index - which charts the leading 25 solar stocks, right across the solar value chain. By contrast, SolarCity accounts for 5.75%, First Solar 5.51%, GCL-Poly Energy Holdings 4.75%, SunPower 4.16% and SunEdison 3.28%. Manufacturing strategy Hanergy Group pivoted from its a-Si production strategy in 2012, when it began acquiring failed CIGS operations and technologies. In a relatively short space of time Hanergy acquired Germany's Solibro, and MiaSolé, Global Solar and Alta Devices from the U.S. The acquisitions were made at low cost, after the U.S. companies in particular had failed to commercialize their promising thin film technologies. At ...Den vollständigen Artikel lesen ...