DuPont Bets Big on Solar Energy Push

DuPont (NYSE:DD), the global chemicals giant, has decided to focus on solar energy as one of the major areas of growth. Based on continued strong demand in solar, DuPont is targeting sales worth $2B by 2014. The company has reached $1.4B in sales in the photo voltaic market in the last year. According to the industry experts, 20% growth is expected in the global installations of solar energy systems over the next five years. Solar energy business is part of the company’s Electronics and Communications business which accounts for nearly 8% of the stock’s value.

DuPont competes with other chemical manufacturing majors like Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) and Bayer AG (BAY:GR).

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Agreement with Yingli Green Energy

As a part of this strategy, DuPont has signed a strategic agreement with Yingli Green Energy, a subsidiary of one of the world’s largest integrated photovoltaic manufacturers, to increase the adoption of solar energy. This agreement, worth $100M assures supply of critical, high quality materials to Yingli while also collaborating on further technological advances to optimize the performance of solar modules. This is in line with Yingli’s commitment to be a cost leader in the industry and provide the best product to customer at the same time.

Among the principal photovoltaic materials Yingli will purchase from DuPont include the DuPont Solamet photovoltaic metallization pastes used in solar modules and the protective backsheet for solar modules made with DuPont Tedlar polyvinyl fluoride film. These materials are critical of solar energy as they continue to advance the science by increasing efficiency, extending the lifetime of modules, and, thus ultimately, help reduce overall system costs to make solar increasingly more competitive with other forms of energy generation.

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See our full analysis for DuPont and Yingli Green Energy