It was a bright, sunny day today in the nondescript part of the world I call home.

And clear, sunny skies - nice for a change this fall! - were an entirely welcome pathetic fallacy, given certain flare-ups the last few days in the solar industry. Wherever I went, whatever I did, I ended up with solar on the brain... metaphorically, if not literally (ouch!)

So the Avenger is especially pleased to shine his light on things exclusively solar today.

Here comes the sun. I say, it's all right.

Taking stock of SunPower

Industry insiders confess it had been a pretty badly-kept secret, but today SunPower formally announced it would acquire solar integrator PowerLight for a whack of cash plus stock.

Honing the point, one individual we talked to specifically noted that, "this has been rumored for months. We just didn't know exactly when."

But someone did. Or at least had some good guesses, as SunPower's stock has been climbing for the last week and a half and, as of today, is now trading at a 6-month high. The company's shares have more than doubled since an initial public offering at $18 a year ago.

Industry types were optimistic about what the merger of the two companies would mean for the industry as a whole, rationalizing that SunPower's rising tide would float all boats, so to speak.

DayStar springs a leak

Yet the crew of at least one solar boat in particular is bailing pretty hard right now to stay afloat.

We were concerned to learn yesterday that CIGS cell vendor DayStar Technologies has less than two months of cash left. Executives at the helm of the new public company's first quarterly analyst call confessed that the co. has only $8.2M in the bank and liquid investments, and an additional $3.1M has been frozen in escrow due to the company's downward-racing stock price. (ed.: frozen? In the solar business?!? Inconceeeivable.)

This is not the time for the company to be running out of money. It just tooled and staffed up its factory in Santa Clara, entered into production of its second generation cells and is now shipping real product, not just prototypes, to initial customer Blitzstrom.

Execs said they're borrowing against fixed assets and working to bring in more capital, but did not name names or make any assurances. The company talked about needing between another $15M and $30M.

If money doesn't come through? In talk reminiscent of the early 2000s- Silicon Valley, the company used ominous language involving "curtailing activities".

We wish them well.

Competitors? What competitors, asks Miasole

In this week's quarterly call, DayStar CEO John Tuttle fielded questions about competitors. He was gentlemanly, acknowledging there were multiple CIGS players in the industry with different approaches, but asserted that leadership would be determined in manufacturing.

In other words, the sort of stuff you'd expect in a public conference call.

In contrast, Dave Pearce, CEO of DayStar competitor Miasole, at an event this week, had no problem dissing others. "We're not really feeling competition," he was overheard saying. "There's a lot of talk from our competition, but I think we're pretty well ahead of them." Ahead? Seconds earlier Pearce had admitted he'd just finished signed the lease on his manufacturing facility.

For a company that, in Pearce's words, had been intentionally staying low profile, he spoke confidently about a number of things, including the company's latest round.

"We were done in four weeks, start to finish. Investors looked at what we're doing and said 'wow, this is impressive.' We met one investor in the morning, and had a term sheet that afternoon."

Nothin' wrong with a little idle boasting. But careful, friends. What do they say about loose lips...?

Suntech tight-lipped

Finally, in a significant but amusingly mysterious announcement, Chinese photovoltaic cell maker Suntech today trumpeted it had "entered into an agreement with a China-based, US-owned leading manufacturer of silicon wafers to purchase silicon wafers over a 5-year period."

The deal is worth no less than $475M USD, perhaps as much as $580M.

But with who? Who's getting half a billion dollars to sell them sand? The company wouldn't say. A spokesman contacted was coy but firm.

It could have been easy to get twisted out of shape. It would have been fun, in a way, to pick up the phone and speculate with industry types, maybe even use my special powers of divination.

But I just smiled, looked out the window and let this one go. It was a bright, sunny day, after all...