Day4 Energy: Canadian Solar Heading to Cali

Day4Day4 Energy joined the public solar company flock at the end of 2007. Although it raised C$100 million ($101 million), as we pointed out, the company had yet to turn a profit. But we keep receiving monthly press releases from the little Canadian solar company telling us about new deals and production expansions, so we decided to find out what exactly Day4’s strategy is.

Day4’s VP of marketing Jake Brown tells us that while most of their business is taking place in Europe due to far more favorable and stable regulations, they are looking to open offices in California, as “California is the place to be,” says Brown. Based just outside Vancouver, British Columbia, Day4 was founded in 2001, started selling product in 2006 and has about 100 employees with offices in Italy and Germany.

Why has the company been making more traction in Europe and is just now heading to California? “The difference that we have in Europe is they have this feed-in tariff,” Brown explained via phone. A feed-in tariff credits an installation according to a certain value per kilowatt produced, which means that building a high-performing system will yield a bigger financial reward.

In the U.S. solar rebates and subsidies are awarded on a relatively flat per-project basis, ignoring a project’s energy efficiency. Brown claims that Day4’s efficient panels, operating between 13 and 14.7 percent efficiency, capitalize on a feed-in tariff’s performance-based reward. Day4 has about 27 channel partners that distribute their panels, but only five or six of them are in North America, according to Brown.

The company has made some progress in the states recently and says it will be providing 4,830 solar panels for a large array in Portland, Ore., taking advantage of the state’s excellent solar incentive programs.

It should be noted that the company has also already changed its entire technological focus once. Brown says they started out with the plan to go into concentrated photovoltaics, like GreenVolts, before switching to traditional polycrystalline cells.

Whether its in Europe or the U.S., the company is working to close the gap between itself and the bigger competitors and is in the midst of tripling production. Day4 received new manufacturing equipment at the start of the year that will be used to bump production up to 40 megawatts from 12 megawatts by the end of the second quarter, the company says. This is still an order of magnitude smaller than competing solar providers.

But the solar market is still young and it’s clear that no one is yet sure how much room there is for what type of designers, manufacturers and distributors. While Day4 is signing deals and expanding production with its new IPO money, its investors are waiting to see sunnier quarterly reports.

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