China Sunergy Co., a specialized solar cell and module manufacturer, today announced that it has completed the transactions to procure its first two solar park projects in Cornwall.
The two solar parks with a size of about 5 MW each are located in the southwest of Cornwall region. China Sunergy will arrange the construction of the projects, and then own and operate these two solar parks itself.
Thanks to the high irradiation of above 1,000 kWh(1) per square meters a year at the site locations in the southwest of Cornwall region, the two solar parks will be able to produce high energy output levels to effectively increase the economic return. The construction of the two solar parks will commence in the forthcoming weeks and is expected to be connected to the grid before April 1, 2013 to be entitled to Renewables Obligation Certificate (ROC) level of 2.0 per MWh. These two projects will be equipped with China Sunergy's high efficiency polycrystalline modules.
The latest figures from the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) show a total installed capacity of about 1.3GW of PV nationally at the end of September 2012. With a firm belief in the UK market's promising potential, China Sunergy will further cooperate with local partners and seek opportunities to increase its investments in solar projects in the coming future.
Mr. Stephen Cai, CEO of China Sunergy, explained, "We will continue our downstream strategy, which is to increase the investment into solar projects globally. These two solar parks in the UK are just starting points for us and we look to expanding across Europe, including France, Germany, Romania, and Spain, etc., where we can achieve a healthy return rate on our projects."
Stephen also added, "We are confident that our investment into these two solar projects in the UK will be a great success, based on China Sunergy's capability to construct and operate solar projects with high returns. This investment not only marks our first official step into the downstream solar business, but also shows that China Sunergy always stays true to its commitment to bringing more clean energy to the world. We possess a solid pipeline of over 50MW by April, 2013 for our downstream project business with sufficient project financing in place, demonstrating China Sunergy's strategic shift in resource allocation amid current industry turmoil."
