Renewable-energy power plant developer Focusic New Energy Holding Co Ltd of Zhengzhou, China and concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) solar system maker Soitec of Bernin (Grenoble), France, have announced that the second phase of the Hami concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) power plant project has started. It will be completed by the end of 2014, while the third and last phase of the project will be installed in 2015.
Hami is located on the edge of the Gobi desert in the Xinjiang province, a region where Soitec’s CPV technology can operate without cooling water, can withstand hot ambient temperatures and has minimal environmental impact (being suited to use in such environmentally sensitive desert areas).
With a final capacity of 20.5MWp, the plant will be one of Asia’s biggest CPV power plants. As announced in November 2013, the Hami project is already fully financed by a loan of 200 million yuan (about $32.7m) from the China Development Bank.
“We started our cooperation with Soitec in 2011,” says Focusic’s managing director Ma Wenxing. The firm first built a 2.7MWp pilot plant based on Soitec’s CPV technology, which was inaugurated last July. “This first phase has confirmed the high efficiency and power output of Soitec’s CPV technology. We therefore decided to use Soitec’s modules for the two remaining phases of our project,” he adds. “At the end of this year, 5.8 new megawatts will be erected in Hami. Finally, we will reach a 20.5MWp total capacity in 2015, with 12 additional megawatts to be installed during the third and last phase of the project.”
“The first phase of this project has already demonstrated the excellent results of our products and we are very pleased Focusic decided to pursue their collaboration with us for the remaining parts of this CPV power plant,” says Fabio Mondini de Focatiis, VP of Middle East, Asia Pacific and LATAM of Soitec’s Solar Energy Division. “Modules ordered for the second phase have all been shipped and we have already started to produce the ones needed for the third phase,” he adds. Soitec CPV systems are already installed in more than 20 countries worldwide. “Regarding this new major project, we strongly believe that the combination of Focusic’s local expertise and our CPV technology can effectively address China’s renewable-energy needs with a competitive energy solution.”
