JinkoSolar, Meta Materials, Encavis - Here comes the sun!

JinkoSolar - Subsidiary goes public

In 2020, JinkoSolar announced a new world record for the efficiency of its monocrystalline n-type solar cells with 24.79%. Although this record has since been surpassed by a project of the Fraunhofer Institute with around 26%, the Chinese still remains the record holder in the field of series production. It is now to be massively expanded. At the beginning of 2021, the Company obtained permission from the Vietnamese government to build a new production plant with an annual capacity of seven gigawatts. The investment of more than USD 500 million in a production facility for wafers and ingots should enable the plant to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2022.

JinkoSolar will thus be able to increase its annual revenue to around USD 8 billion, according to analysts, and also diversify its international supply chain. The Group is thereby responding to the strong growth in global demand for solar cells. The Chinese solar pioneer is also planning the IPO of its subsidiary Jiangxi Jinko on the STAR market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The necessary documents were already submitted in June and have since been accepted by the stock exchange. The next step is the registration procedure with the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission. The Group, which holds around 73% of the subsidiary valued at USD 1.7 billion, would be diluted to a maximum shareholding of just under 55%.

Meta Materials - Good prospects thanks to innovative materials

The efficiency of solar cells describes how much of the incident light a solar cell can convert into electrical energy. So to maximize output, the amount of incident light must be as large as possible. Flexible systems, therefore, have a tracking control, which adjusts the orientation and angle of the sun to the current position. On the other hand, with fixed solar cells, a compromise must be found so that the maximum amount of sunlight can be captured. Meta Materials, a company based in Nova Scotia, Canada, addresses this issue with its special coatings.

The nanomaterials developed by the NASDAQ-listed Company in more than ten years of research work, most of which have been patented, are capable of "redirecting" light, sound, heat and radio waves with the aid of virtually invisible coatings. It is thus possible to significantly increase the amount of incident light on the surfaces of solar cells without the need for tracking systems or concentrators, thus increasing the amount of electricity produced. Another possibility is to reduce the size of solar cells while maintaining the same output so that they are suitable for mobile applications, for example.

However, the application of the materials produced by Meta Materials is not limited to the solar industry but is also suitable for dozens of other areas. For example, the transparent coating of window panes is also possible, which can then be used as antennas to improve the reception of 5G mobile communications technology. The Company has now filed 149 patent applications, and patents have already been granted for 82 of them. Investors were fascinated in the meantime, and the share price climbed to USD 22 in June. A significant price correction followed this to the current level of USD 5.30, which means that the Company is now valued at just under USD 1.5 billion.

Another area in which Meta Materials wants to gain a foothold in the future is the topic of safety. The Canadians recently announced the complete acquisition of Nanotech Security Corp. for about CAD 91 million, a leader in developing nano-optical security features used to protect against counterfeiting of banknotes or to monitor trademark rights. For the next two years, Meta Materials has announced its intention to more than double its production capacity from the current level of around 7 million sqm to 15 million sqm per year.

By the way: Meta Materials CEO George Palikaras will present at the International Investment Forum (IIF) on October, 14. The conference can be followed by any investor via Zoom.

Encavis - When will the share rise again?

One of the largest listed German solar park operators is Encavis AG, based in Hamburg. In addition to solar parks, the Company also operates numerous on-shore wind farms. The ratio of solar to wind power is currently around 3:1. The share price performance has been massively disappointing this year. Recently, however, the Company was able to announce good news. Encavis succeeded in obtaining favorable refinancing for its 21 ground-mounted wind farms in Italy (total output: around 41.7 MWp). In addition, a new special fund with a volume of EUR 500 million, aimed exclusively at banks, was launched with BayernLB, after the predecessor fund was initially doubled from EUR 200 million to EUR 400 million due to high demand, and closed with EUR 480 million in December 2020.

Solar remains a hot topic. JinkoSolar and Encavis are attractive based on their current portfolios. In the short term, no one will break the Chinese dominance in solar module manufacturing. And German solar and wind farm operators should certainly get a tailwind with the new German government - regardless of which parties it will consist of. Meta Materials' innovative technology offers numerous application possibilities and thus addresses a vast market. After the price correction, the stock is worth a closer look.