SunPower Corporation, a leading solar technology and energy services provider, today announced the sale of more than 70 megawatts (MW) of cell packages to the Huaxia Concentrated Photovoltaic Power Co., Ltd., joint venture (JV) in Inner Mongolia, China.
These packages will be used for the first phase of two SunPower™ C7 Tracker (C7) projects, which includes a 20-MW project in Saihan and a 100-MW project in Wuchuan. Both are located in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia and completion is expected in 2015.
"Today's announcement is a first step in our aggressive efforts to break into the Chinese market," said Tom Werner, SunPower president and CEO. "Working together with our strong local partners, we believe that we can deploy significant volumes of our SunPower C7 Tracker power plants to help serve China's growing need for clean power."
The definitive agreement for the Huaxia Concentrated Photovoltaic Power JV was initially signed in December of 2012, and officially approved and registered in November of 2013. The JV includes SunPower, Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co., Ltd., Inner Mongolia Power (Group) Co., Ltd. and Hohhot Jinqiao City Development Company, Ltd. Its focus is to manufacture and deploy SunPower's proprietary C7 concentrator technology in the Chinese market. To date, a 300-MW C7 receiver manufacturing facility has been set up in Jinqiao Development Zone, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, and a 50-MW production line is now in operation.
The C7 combines single-axis tracking technology with rows of parabolic mirrors that reflect light onto SunPower's high efficiency, third-generation Maxeon solar cells with efficiencies of up to 24.5 percent. These mirrors will reduce the number of cells required to generate electricity, lowering the levelized cost of energy when compared to competing technologies. For example, a 400-MW C7 power plant requires less than 70 MW of SunPower cells. Through significant localization of C7 manufacturing and supply chain, and deployment of the C7 for large-scale power plant projects, it is expected that this venture will facilitate the development of a low cost, high volume supply chain and accelerate the cost reduction roadmap of this product.
The capacity of cell packages and power plant projects in this release are described in approximate megawatts on a direct current (dc) basis.
About SunPower
SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) designs, manufactures and delivers the highest efficiency, highest reliability solar panels and systems available today. Residential, business, government and utility customers rely on the company's quarter century of experience and guaranteed performance to provide maximum return on investment throughout the life of the solar system. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., SunPower has offices in North America, Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia. For more information, visit www.sunpower.com.
About Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor
Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (TZS) is a Tianjin-based PRC listed company with a registered capital of RMB 724,244,412. TZS is committed to the semiconductor energy-efficiency industry and the new energy industry, and is an integrated high-tech enterprise with research, production, operation and venture capital functions. Its main products include vertical pulling monocrystalline, zonemelting monocrystalline, polished wafer, semiconductor power devices and rectifiers used in the semiconductor energy-efficiency sector; and monocrystalline silicon used in the new energy sector. These products are widely applied in smart grid transmission, new-energy vehicles, high-speed railways, inverters for wind power, integrated circuits, consumer electronics, aerospace, photovoltaic power, and other areas.
About Inner Mongolia Power Group
IMPC (Group), solely owned by Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is the only provincial-level independent power grid company outside the National Grid and China Southern Grid. IMPC constructs, operates and manages the power grid covering 8 Inner Mongolia cities including Hohhot, serving an area of 720 thousand square kilometers and a population of 13.8 million. At the behest of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, it also manages state owned enterprises including Power Design, Power Science & Development, Power Construction companies.
About Hohhot Jinqiao City Development Company
Located in Jinqiao Development Zone of Hohhot City, Hohhot Jinqiao City Development Company is a state-owned company to invest in and finance the projects related to city infrastructure development and improvement. HJDC was founded on April 2, 2001, with registered capital of RMB 58M.