Despite seeing share prices tumble, renewables companies remain confident about the future

That was the message coming out of the Reuters Global Environment Summit this week.

Reuters said Solar cell maker First Solar Inc was feeling no immediate effect on its business from the financial markets crisis, while demand for solar panels were still exceeding supply, allowing solar power company Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd to keep 2009 price declines in the range it had previously forecast.

And Reuters reported Vestas Wind Systems chief executive Ditlev Engel had said the fundamental need for energy had not changed regardless of a financial crisis. "There are still challenges within the areas of climate and energy and there is still the question of energy independence," said the boss of the world’s number one wind energy company.

Engel ruled out consolidation in the wind energy sector, despite a sharp fall in share prices, said Reuters.

“A horizontal consolidation – that is companies doing the same as us – that's not the way we're going and I don't see the sector going that way either," he said.

Reuters said the Vestas boss saw growth for his sector over the next 12 years, adding that the company might be interested in acquisitions in research and development and other such areas should interesting subjects emerge.

Solar cell maker First Solar Inc, meanwhile, saw opportunities for its business from the financial markets crisis, said Reuters. Its chairman and ceo Michael Ahearn said it could take on a role in financing new projects or buying into new technologies. "First Solar is in a relatively strong position," Ahearn said. "There may be some opportunities for us to help facilitate lower-cost credit."

Ahearn saw last week's extension of U.S. renewable energy incentives and a new rule that will allow utilities to take advantage of tax breaks as an opportunity for utility holding companies to fund new solar projects, said Reuters.

"They are a likely funding source going forward," Ahearn said.

First Solar had been among those companies whose valuations have soared in the last year, but then fall sharply due to the financial crisis. Its shares have shed more than 50 percent of their value since the end of August.

But Ahearn told Reuters, he did not see a change in industry fundamentals despite an investor note published by Goldman Sachs on Tuesday (October 7) that predicted declining prices for solar modules, thereby contributing to a sell-off this week.

"I don't think anything changed from the [more positive] report [Goldman] did a month ago," he told Reuters.

In another interview at the Reuters Global Environment Summit, Steven Chan, Suntech's chief strategy officer, said: "With the financial crisis, the high demand relative to supply has sort of shrunk a bit. But we still feel like we are in a situation where there still is more demand than supply of modules."

Like others, Suntech shares have taken a hammering over concerns that the global economic downturn could see a fall in demand for solar products. Its share price has fallen by more than 30 percent in October alone.

But Chan said lower prices on solar modules should help investors generate the high returns they demand. "If we can lower our cost of the systems and the modules because our own internal costs are coming down, then we can still sell a competitive offering ... and they can capture the slightly higher return that they want because of the financial crisis," Chan told Reuters.

To support its growth in the United States, Chan said Suntech would likely build a manufacturing facility in that market within three years. A plant in Europe, where Suntech currently sells most of its products, could be built within the next two years, Reuters said.