Solar Gloom Overshadows Q-Cells, Solon

A lack of project funding threatens to undermine the solar industry’s already fragile growth prospects, two of the sector’s biggest players said on Tuesday, reporting profits that missed market forecasts.

Q-Cells, the world’s largest maker of solar cells, slashed its 2009 sales outlook for the third time since December, while German peer Solon, a solar module maker, posted a bigger-than-expected first-quarter net loss.
“In view of the ongoing uncertain market environment due to financing restrictions for larger PV (photovoltaic) systems in particular, it is currently still difficult to give a precise forecast for the full year,” Q-Cells said in a statement.

Q-Cells said it now expected 2009 sales to come in between 1.3 billion and 1.6 billion euros ($1.77-2.18 billion), down from the previous 1.7-2.1 billion euro forecast range.

Massive oversupply of cells, modules and wafer had led Q-Cells — along with the world’s No.2 cell maker Sharp Corp — to cut outlooks or jobs earlier this year, while Solon withdrew its 2009 outlook last year.

Planet Ark