The last few weeks has seen some major announcements from Yingli Green Energy, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of solar panels.
Late last week the company announced its wholly-owned subsidiary, Yingli Energy (China) Company Limited, had inked an agreement for a joint venture with Shuozhou Coal Power Co., Ltd. to develop and construct solar farms in Shuozhou city, Shanxi province.
The partnership builds on a previous collaboration between the two that saw a 20 MW utility-scale project located in Shanxi Province.
Mr. Liansheng Miao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yingli Green Energy, said the partnership would provide the company with a strategic avenue to expand its domestic downstream business.
The Chinese government has set a 12GW 2014 solar installation target, so domestic opportunities will be in abundance for companies such as Yingli.
A couple of weeks earlier, the company announced it, along with Sinohydro and Hydrochina, had secured 233 megawatts of solar photovoltaic projects in Algeria. Construction on those solar farms begins this month and is expected to be completed within 8 months.
Also in December, the company celebrated the grid connection of the world’s largest hybrid hydro and PV project. Situated near the Longyangxia Dam in Qinghai Province, China; the 320 MW facility incorporates 15MW of Yingli solar panels that are expected to generate 498 million kWh of solar electricity annually.
Yingli Green Energy is the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer in terms of production capacity and shipments. A fully vertically integrated player, the company has shipped more than 7 gigawatts of Yingli solar panels globally – more than 30 million modules.
Since 1998, Yingli’s manufacturing capacity has grown from 3 MW to 2.45GW today.
Local solar provider Energy Matters has recently started offering Yingli modules as an option in its solar package deals.
