JA Solar Holdings Co reported a loss of CNY250.9 million in the first quarter as the solar-products company faced a double-digit drop in shipments and sharply weakened margins. Shipments fell 19% to 366 megawatt (MW), but exceeded the company’s March projection for shipments between 320 MW and 350 MW. Looking ahead, JA Solar expects shipments between 420 MW and 440 MW for the second quarter. The company has now seen its revenue decline for three straight quarters as weakened global demand and a supply glut have sent wafer and module prices tumbling. In the latest quarter it also recorded a USD2.9 million provision tied to a preliminary ruling last month by the U.S. Department of Commerce to impose a 31% tariff on Chinese solar products for the “dumping” of products in the U.S. at less than fair value. Last year JA Solar reported a profit of CNY470.2 million in the first quarter.

The world’s largest solar-panel makers are boosting production this year on expectations that demand in China will double, a surprise shift as the USD36 billion market migrates from Europe to Asia. The five biggest producers of polysilicon solar modules, led by China’s Suntech Power and Yingli Green Energy, will increase shipments 27% to 37% from last year’s levels, according to estimates by Bloomberg. Chinese demand will partially offset declines in Europe that are driving the industry towards its first global sales decline since at least 1999. China’s efforts to stimulate its photovoltaic industry at home and a 48% drop in panel prices in 2011 are boosting sales. China, which trails only Germany and Italy for new installations, is expected to dominate growth this year and become the top solar market in 2013, after European nations cut subsidies for new projects. The Chinese boom “will drive big shipment numbers from Chinese manufacturers, which are the only ones selling there,” said Sean McLoughlin, Vice President for Clean Technology Analysis at HSBC in London. Suntech Chief Executive Shi Zhengrong expects solar sales in China to exceed 4 GW this year, and Trina Solar’s CEO Gao Jifan expects 5 GW of installations. China’s market totaled 2.57 GW last year, almost 9% of worldwide sales, according to London-based research group New Energy Finance. China may install as much as 5.5 GW this year and the same amount next year while Germany may slide to 2.5 GW next year, the group estimates. The five top companies by shipments of silicon panels last year were Suntech, Yingli, Trina, Canadian Solar and Hanwha SolarOne. They expect combined sales of solar modules this year to range from 9.3 GW to 10.1 GW compared with 7.4 GW last year. The ranking excludes First Solar, which makes thin-film cells and expects a decline in shipments this year. Japan, the sixth-largest market in 2011, starts a new solar incentive program in July and may install more than 4.6 GW of solar panels next year, second after China, according to New Energy Finance. Saudi Arabia is seeking investors for a USD109 billion plan to create its own solar industry. Not all solar companies are projecting a surge this year. Jinko Solar, which ranked eighth in silicon-panel shipments last year, expects sales between 800 MW and 1 GW, which is about the same as 2011’s level of 950.5 MW. Chief Executive Chen Kangping still said he expected China to be a “very, very important market in 2012”. Suntech, the world’s largest panel maker, has the most conservative growth forecast of the top five. It expects shipments of 2.1 GW to 2.5 GW, compared with 2.1 GW last year, the South China Morning Post reports.

Huadian Fuxin Energy, the clean energy flagship of power generator China Huadian Group, is seeking a fresh injection of cash from a Hong Kong listing to provide funding for its ambitious expansion plans. “Given the poor performance [of clean energy stocks] over the past year, and the general lack of market interest in initial public offerings of shares, it is a curious time for Huadian Fuxin to come to the market,” Sanford Bernstein Senior Analyst Michael Parker said. State-backed rivals China Longyuan, Huaneng Renewables and China Datang Corporation Renewable Power have already tapped the Hong Kong market for funds in the past 30 months. Huadian Fuxin’s net debt-to-shareholders’ equity multiple stood at 3.85 times, close to the four-times ceiling state companies are not supposed to surpass, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). The company aims to raise its wind power generating capacity by 47% by year-end to 3,200 megawatt (MW) from 2,171.3 MW a year earlier. Besides building 600 MW of coal-fired power plants that would add to its existing capacity of 2,050 MW, it also has a 190 MW in hydro power projects under construction or planned that would add to the 2,223 MW of its existing hydro capacity. In the next two years, it has budgeted a total of CNY20 billion for wind, coal and hydro capacity expansion. It has also set aside CNY800 million for the early construction of a nuclear power plant. According to industry practice, power plants must be at least 20% financed by equity capital, and the rest is typically funded by bank loans. This means Huadian Fuxin needs CNY4 billion of capital to meet the requirement for the next two years. It had CNY1.49 billion in cash on hand at the end of last year.

Sanford Bernstein’s Michael Parker said this year was a good time to consider buying into Chinese wind power producers as plant utilization levels were expected to rebound from next year as more power grids were built to relieve chronic bottlenecks in transmission capacity caused by wind farms being built much faster than grids. Huadian Fuxin saw its wind farm’s utilization drop to 2,072 hours last year from 2,232 hours in 2010 and 2,726 hours in 2009. As the company was forced to halve its initial public offering (IPO) target, it is now also considering issuing corporate bonds. “While the share offering’s fund-raising size is less than originally expected, our calculations tell us we should basically be able to meet our needs for the next two years,” Board Secretary Liu Lei told a press conference. Huadian Fuxin Energy plans to raise up to USD391 million in a Hong Kong listing, down from the USD1 billion it originally sought late last year. Huadian has received support from six cornerstone investors, who will buy about 61% of the 1.5 billion shares on offer. They include state-backed wind turbine suppliers Sinovel Wind Group, which has pledged to buy USD58.8 million of the shares, and China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock, which will buy USD50 million, and U.S. conglomerate General Electric, which will take USD10 million. Customer State Grid Corporation of China; its state-backed rival, Huaneng Renewables; and Shanxi Lu’an Mining have each undertaken to buy USD30 million worth of shares. They are not allowed to sell them within six months of Huadian Fuxin’s listing, which is expected on June 28.

Construction of a high-tech garbage incinerator in Pudong is finished and will be working on a trial basis before year’s end to ease Shanghai’s looming shortfall in garbage treatment capacity. The first phase of the incinerator will start burning waste in the second half of this year, the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau said. It is built inside the Laogang landfill compound, now the city’s primary garbage treatment center. The new facility will be able to incinerate up to 3,000 tons of garbage every day, about 15% of the city’s current total daily waste. The second phase of the project, to open soon, will have the same capacity. The Laogang incinerator facility will be the largest in terms of treatment capacity in China. Heat from the incinerator will produce up to 100 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually, enough to supply about 100,000 local families. Some of the cinders will be processed into bricks while ashes will be buried. Both the waste liquid and gas would be treated to meet safety standards before being discharged. The Laogang landfill currently handles 70% of Shanghai’s daily waste. Over two decades, three huge landfill sites have been used up and a quarter of the fourth section is already full. Some local scientists have raised concerns about pollution from incinerators, however. Shen Jianhua, a local environmental scientist, warned that the operator and government watchdogs must strictly monitor the incinerators every day to ensure trash is always fully burned. Insufficient incineration causes the discharged gas to contain pollutants including cancer-inducing chemicals, Shen said.

Shanghai started releasing hourly readings of PM2.5 from 10 new monitoring spots on June 27, and will conduct stricter environmental-protection measures in six areas: water, air, solid waste, industry, agriculture and ecology. Shanghai has been releasing 24-hour PM2.5 combined measurements from just two spots — one in Putuo District and one in Zhangjiang in the Pudong New Area since March as a trial. The Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau has installed 24 local spots and 10 new national spots to monitor PM2.5. The PM2.5 information is available in Chinese on www.semc.gov.cn. By the end of this year, Shanghai will officially announce the hourly and daily readings of all six types of pollution — PM10, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, PM2.5, ozone and carbon monoxide — under a national new air quality monitoring standard. More than 20 cities, including Guangzhou, Xiamen and Nanjing, publish daily PM2.5 data. To deal with noise pollution, the Shanghai government has kicked off tighter measures and installed more barriers along the elevated highways, and stepped up management of construction sites.