Sharp says feed-in tariff not crucial for US solar
* Believes industry should learn to stand on its own feet
* Expects big things from U.S. solar industry in 2012
SAN FRANCISCO, July 16 (Reuters) - The lack of a U.S. feed-in tariff subsidy for renewable power may prove a strength as the country grows into the top solar market, said an executive at Sharp Corp (6753.T), the world's second-largest maker of solar cells.
Solar players worldwide are grappling with a collapse in cell prices driven by a supply glut that forced leading maker Q-Cells SE (QCEG.DE) to issue a warning on its full-year sales outlook this week. [nLE396437]
Ron Kenedi, vice president at Sharp Solar Energy Solutions Group, believed a lack of cash subsidies in the squeeze would ultimately give the U.S. industry stronger roots ahead of the explosive growth that should be only three years away.
"We have to stand on our own two feet," Kenedi said in an interview on Thursday. "We have to arrive at a market price that you're going to buy this sort of power."
Feed-in tariffs, which pay above-market rates for power produced by solar panels or wind turbines, have helped turn European countries such as Germany and Spain into world-beaters for solar power.
Such a policy was adopted this week in Britain, where Sharp has a photovoltaic module plant in Wales that has been shipping almost all its output to continental Europe. [nLD626524]
Kenedi said he was not opposed to the feed-in approach, but argued it was likely better suited to Europe where government planning is often favored and utilities tend to be larger.
"I don't think our utilities could manage it well enough," he said. "They're good at collection, they're not good at paying." Analysts have predicted the United States will be the world's largest market for solar power in just a few years.
A still-emerging U.S. solar industry is in the process of taking shape, Kenedi said, though much of that was happening below the surface this year, and he did not anticipate serious growth until 2012.
Without such a "watt-com" boom, and with many smaller players choked by lack of financing, there are plenty of potential acquisitions in solar, though Kenedi was wary of talk of vertical integration of the industry as a "panacea."
Buying a solar panel installer before the market took off, for instance, could only add to level of risk, he said. "You don't want it to end up like a firehouse, with a bunch of guys sitting around playing checkers."
(Reporting by Braden Reddall; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
((braden.reddall@thomsonreuters.com; +1 415 677 2543; braden.reddall.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: SHARP/SOLAR
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