Oct 29 2012
Lightway Solar America, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Lightway Green New Energy Co., Ltd. (LGNE), has announced the execution of 62.8 Megawatts of contracts through their project development subsidiary, Lightway Solar America Project Development, LLC (LWSA PD).
Lightway has implemented a sales model in which 11.9 MW of solar panels will be invested into these projects in exchange for equity positions with a commitment from their project partners to purchase the remaining 50.9 MW through executed supply agreements.
The project pipeline consists of 11 different solar project development partners with a pipeline of projects ranging from 250 kw to 4.8 MW spread throughout New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Arizona and California. Projects will begin construction immediately with 21 MW scheduled for Q4 2012 and 42 MW to be built throughout 2013.
During an era where the U.S. solar industry is challenged with oversupply, decreasing prices and project financing bottlenecks, Lightway has aggressively implemented sales models that focus on bankability, downstream financial solutions, and strategic distribution channels. In less than 2 years, Lightway's U.S. subsidiary has already executed over 98 MW of supply agreements and is expecting their project development subsidiary to create additional growth opportunities in 2013.
William Sien, President of LWSA PD, said: "The earlier trends of integrating upstream have been successful in undersupplied markets, however, we recognize that in today's market of oversupply and project financing difficulties, moving further downstream into project ownership will be a key factor towards our future growth and sustainability. Although our primary business model and expertise will remain in solar module manufacturing, we foresee project development and ownership of photovoltaic projects as key drivers to supplement our solar module sales throughout the North America region."
Wei Na, Global Sales and Marketing VP of LGNE, parent company of LSA, further commented: "We are excited about the project pipeline, whose strong commercial and residential presence in US provides us with an excellent opportunity as we operate our business in the U.S. We are confident our high-quality solar modules and customer service will contribute to the growth of the solar industry as a whole."