Record order intake for Midsummer in 2018
Increase in solar demand driven by Californian market
Swedish CIS solar energy firm Midsummer has announced a record high order intake for 2018. Midsummer received orders for €25.8m last year. The high order intake is driven mainly by the increasing demand for Midsummer's end products in the US market, where Midsummer's partner Sunflare has released several new innovative products.
“California is a huge market and the state is far ahead of other regions in both regulatory and technical terms,” said Sven Lindström, CEO and founder of Midsummer. “All new homes built in California must have solar power installed from January 1, 2020 and the state has nearly half of US total installed solar power capacity. Our partner Sunflare is investing heavily in this region and has launched several new innovative products in this market that has received great interest.”
Solar energy accounts for nearly 17 percent of California's total energy production. The amount of installed solar energy is expected to double in the US in five years and more than half of all new electricity in the United States today comes from solar energy. The payback time for a solar energy system in California is shorter than four years while the systems have a technical lifetime of at least 25 years.
“We are witnessing a true revolution in renewable energy, with the United States as the driver, and the potential is simply enormous, not just in the southwestern United States but throughout the world. Solar energy is very competitive, even without subsidies and also in cold countries. We believe that the future lies in BIPV, building-integrated solar panels, which can easily be integrated with or attached to roofs, walls, vehicles, tents, over landfills, etc. in urban environments and close to the end consumers. The only limit is production capacity. It would necessitate 435 of our DUO machines to manufacture solar panels to cover just five percent of California's membrane roofs”, said Lindström.
Midsummer's DUO system has taken the position as the most widespread manufacturing tool for flexible thin film solar cells in the world.
Midsummer had revenues 2017 of €11.2m and €16m in the first nine months of 2018, with operating profits of €2.4m and €3m respectively. Midsummer's annual report will be presented on March 22.
