Solar Fabrik AG has just released its latest set of quarterly earnings.

One of Germany's smaller solar companies (turnover EUR 52.1 million in 2004), it manufactures and supplies solar modules, inverters, installation accessories and solar system solutions. This year it is predicted to have a 20 MW output.

What makes Solar Fabrik unusual is that a company this small manages to be independent. Manufacturing in solar is usually dependent on scale. Morover, they have some ingenious products designed for the developing world; a solar powered water purifier and an autonomous solar power plant - the solar home station.

SolarWorld AG generated a group profit after tax of 33.6 (previous year: 10.3) million EUR in the period from January through September 2005 thus more than tripling the previous year's profit.

The company has had quite a turn around since 2003 when it made a loss of EUR 5.4 million. Aside from the massive improvement in profitability, it has tripled in value since the beginning of the year. And now MM Warburg is rating it as a buy.

Just last week, the foundation stone was laid for a new wafer plant, which it is anticipated will boost annual output to 220 MW by the end of 2006.

Xantrex Technology Inc. (TSX:XTX), a solar inverters producer, and Solon AG, a European solar module manufacturer, have signed an agreement valued at more than US $10 million. Under this two-year agreement, Xantrex will supply custom solar grid tie inverters to Solon AG.

What's interesting about this is that it marks a clear way of getting into the European (for which read Germany) solar market for Xantrex. There's much more to solar power than just the panels and inverters are crucial balance of systems components. Xantrex claims to have inverters in place for over 3000 MW of wind and solar power around the world. An inverter by the way converts direct current electricity to alternating current.

Xantrex closed yesterday at 8.00 having risen from just over 5 in mid-August earlier this year.

Just before its IPO, German PV cell manufacturer Q-Cells has raised the price range for its   Deutsche Bourse IPO from EUR 29-34 (USD 35-41) to EUR 35-38 (USD 42-46).

What this means is that the company could very well capitalize at over EUR 1.4bn   (USD 1.7bn). Large  capitalizations matter because it makes it easier for big investment funds to take an interest, hitherto a barrier for institutional investors in the alternative energy universe.
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Q-Cells AG as the world’s largest independent producer of mono- and polycrystalline, silicon-based high-efficiency solar cells.