You may recall a post I had in May regarding the struggles at Burnaby, B.C.-based power electronics maker Xantrex Technology Inc.

Well, things have gotten worse, not better. Last week the company issued an earnings warning, and yesterday it formally released its second-quarter results. The company had its first quarterly loss since going public 16 months ago. Margins keep falling. Power electronic sales to the wind market are going nowhere as competition grows. Attempts to lower costs through outsourcing are going slower than planned. And while there is potential to beef up sales in the solar market in Europe, an industry shortage of solar PV panels and Xantrex’s relatively small presence in Europe have held back potential growth.

Analysts, which thought the company would have orchestrated a turnaround by now, are beginning to lose faith. Xantrex shares have been downgraded and 12-month targets lowered. Today, shares dipped below $6, about one-third their IPO value. Meanwhile, the company says it won’t provide financial guidance for the rest of the year… so we wait some more.

No surprise, then, that Xantrex’s frustrated board of directors asked CEO Ray Rosewell to leave. Effective today, they have appointed fellow director John Wallace as interim CEO. Wallace was formerly a Ford executive who oversaw the automaker’s hybrid/fuel cell/electric vehicle program. He has also held interim CEO position at Avestor, a Quebec-based maker of advanced batteries.

Analysts I spoke with seemed happy with the move, mostly because it showed a desire on the part of the board to be more proactive. Fact is, the company under Rosewell hasn’t been proactive — management has largely been reactive to market conditions, something that chairman Mossadiq Umedaly told me today didn’t do justice to the company’s otherwise sound strategy/vision. He said Rosewell was a “mismatch” for the company, which needs to be better at anticipating challenges before being blindsided by them.

Let’s hope this management change, and current restructuring efforts, will get this cleantech engine humming again.

Here’s an article from a local Thunder Bay newspaper about a new Web site from the Ontario government that maps wind resources throughout the province.

The site is called Ontario Wind Resource Atlas and is provided by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. It’s quite an interesting prospecting tool, and seems ideal for anybody interested in wind — whether to put up a single turbine on a plot of land or develop a multi-turbine wind farm. The site “allows users to view colour-coded maps of numerous wind statistics for any one-square-kilometre area in the province.”

A Wal-Mart Supercentre in Texas has become the centre of several energy-saving experiments that will help the giant retailer decide how best to build future “green” locations. Wal-Mart is calling the Texas location its “control” store. It expects to save enough energy each year to power 1,800 homes. Solar Integrated Technologies of Los Angeles has just completed installation of a solar roof at the supercentre.

Interesting thing about Solar Integrated: Jon Slangerup, who became the company’s CEO in February, was most recently the CEO and president of Mississauga-based Stuart Energy before it was acquired by neighbour Hydrogenics Corp.

Turns out Solar Integrated has a partnership with Stuart (now Hydrogenics) for the creation of solar-hydrogen fueling stations. The idea is to build flexible solar PV tent structures around an electrolyzer unit that turns the sun’s energy into hydrogen. The result is a “station” that both generates hydrogen through water electrolysis when the sun is shining and dispenses the gas to fuel-cell vehicles. For early applications, it seems ideal for remote military bases using fuel-cell powered vehicles and equipment.

I had many interviews and visits with Slangerup. I considered him an effective CEO, and indeed, during his three years at Stuart revenues more than tripled. In fact, my only criticism is that Stuart — a global leader in hydrogen production through electrolysis — was sold to Hydrogenics. Stuart had a healthy industrial customer base and was growing well, so the emergence of a mainstream hydrogen economy was merely icing on the cake.

Solar Integrated is fortunate to have Slangerup as its CEO, and the fact that the former Stuart boss decided to join the Los Angeles company gives it a good shot of credibility.

The Chinese city of Shanghai is apparently studying the idea of putting solar PV systems atop 100,000 buildings to relieve power shortages and reduce dependency on dirty coal-fired plants. A feasibility study being conducted by Shanghai Jiao Tong University is nearly complete. The goal would be generation capacity of about 300,000 kilowatts — at least when the sun is shining.

Give them credit for being bold. And remember that China has a way of doing what it says. One of the few benefits of state-controlled societies, I suppose.

Funny, if Shanghai is serious about this project, and if this one plan is representative of others throughout power-starved and polluted China, you’ve got to figure there will be a dramatic impact on an already under-supplied global solar market. Sounds eerily similar to arguments around oil supply.

That said, if solar PV manufacturers can ramp up supply and overcome a shortage that has been primarily caused by demand from Germany, Japan and Spain, perhaps we’ll begin seeing solar prices that average Joe Torontonian can afford. It may take a few years, but clearly the solar boom we’re seeing today has staying power.

It’s part of the reason why we’re seeing so much venture capital dollars flowing toward solar startups who are making head-way with flexible solar, integrated solar and thin-film solar technologies. It’s also why some of the more interesting IPOs we’ll see over the next year or so will be solar-focused. (See Cleantech Investing post)

Good to hear that the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission has approved the use of six different hybrid-electric models as cabs. The commission, while concerned that some of the models wouldn’t have enough legroom for back-seat passengers, decided that getting cleaner cars on the road was a priority. The Toyota Prius and Highlander were considered the roomiest of the bunch, while the Honda Accord and Civic hybrids were more confining, the commission found. The decision is potentially good news for cab drivers, who can take advantage of the lower fuel costs and emissions, as well as more quiet operation of hybrid vehicles.