Intriguing news! Details still appear sketchy but this young gun CEO seems like one of those guys you really want to hitch your wagon too based on where he has been, so early in life. I’d like to see details of the technology before commenting further.. and I’d like to note this news has nothing to do with LDK Solar itself… it’s just the same founder. Just in case Best Solar IPOs in the US I better start watching it; it will be interesting to hear how far along they are and what First Solar (FSLR) management thinks of this (they do have a huge head start)…

That said, all these huge initiatives plays into my thesis that we are going to have a major industry shakeout and (shorter term) gluts somewhere in the 2010-2012 time frame. [Jan 3: The Long Term in Solar] Anytime Abu Dhabi jumps on the train with their unlimited pocketbook…

• The LDK Investor Group says Best Solar, a thin-film startup founded by LDK CEO Xiaofeng Peng, placed the $1.9 billion order that Applied Materials reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March.
• Rumors about Applied Materials’ (NSDQ: AMAT) mystery customer have been flying ever since the company reported a $1.9 billion sales agreement “with a privately held corporation based outside the United States” in March.
• Some industry insiders thought the purchaser was Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s alternative-energy company, which later that month announced it would build $1.2 billion worth of concentrating solar projects in the south of Spain. Others guessed it was Moser Baer, which in February had said it would pump $1.5 billion into thin-film solar, and still others thought it was Chinese solar-wafer manufacturer LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK).
• Best Solar is an independent company that is unrelated to LDK — other than sharing a founder — and that aims to become the world’s largest supplier of thin-film solar panels, according to the report. “I’m sure this is correct,” said Telenius, who wouldn’t disclose his source but said it was “a direct source” and that the information was confirmed by “lots” of other unnamed sources.
• Jesse Pichel, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, said he believes the report is correct, based on his own information. The theory also fits in with LDK’s annual report, which states that Peng and his family members “are considering and may invest or otherwise participate in his personal capacity in several alternative-energy projects, including projects involving thin-film solar technology, solar-thermal, wind energy and biofuels.”
• “If true, it means the CEO’s personal business is directly competing with LDK shareholders,” Pichel said. “It’s a competing technology – one’s thin-film and one’s polycrystalline. And given that Peng’s the driver of the company, his attention may be diluted now that he’s having to run a big private company. He’s ramping a 1.5-gigawatt poly plant, a 1.5-gigawatt wafer plant and a gigawatt of thin film all at the same time.” (very good points)
• In the report, Telenius wrote that distraction is a concern, but also found some silver lining: Peng “is reinforcing the impression we have of his ability to strike bold deals and launch large companies – a true entrepreneur – and that he is committed to building a strong solar industry in China.”
• Applied Materials’ technology is still a risky proposition, said Brian Yerger, a research analyst with Jesup & Lamont. “There’s a lot of promise and a lot of hype and market capacity built into their solar division, and they’re going to be spending a lot of money and [capital] to ramp it up, but in reality they don’t have any modules that generate power yet,” he said. “It’s unusual for someone so large with such a long history spending so much to take a large shot at solar. There’s always some risk that a startup could come up and find a game-changing technology that could make Applied Materials obsolete.”

Again, this is still too new to process without more detail but it is fascinating. We should also be hearing the drumbeat of how Applied Materials (AMAT) much like Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) is now a “solar company” – of course AMAT is much bigger than ENER…

Solar is going to be a very interesting space for many years to come – but the competition is going to be brutal.

Long LDK Solar in fund; no personal position

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