South Korean solar cell producer and downstream company Hanwha Q Cells has signed deals with two renewable energy EPCs to create 78.6 MW of solar PV capacity in India and the Philippines.
The company confirmed that it will enter into a joint venture (JV) in India with local EPC Azure Power to create a company that will invest in and oversee the development of a 50 MW solar farm in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
This solar farm is scheduled to begin commercial operation in March 2015, and taps into the states growing thirst for solar power and Indias wider push to augment its solar industry. The Ministry for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in India is targeting the installation of 100 GW of cumulative solar PV capacity by 2020.
The second agreement announced by Kim Ik-pyo, Hanwha Q Cells head of project business team, involves Belgium-based Enfinity, which is to work with Hanwha on the creation of a 28.6 MW solar PV plant on the southern Philippine island of Mindano.
"We are tapping into the overseas downstream market by having clinched two big deals in India and the Philippines, where we see plenty of growth potential," said Ik-pyo.
Solars role in the energy mix of the Philippines is growing, and the government recently came under pressure to increase support for the industry. The current feed-in tariff (FIT) has a capacity of 500 MW, but the Philippine Solar Power Alliance (PSPA) has urged an increase to 2 GW to enable solar to grow to meet the rising energy demand in the country.
International players have begun eyeing the market, too, not least U.S. vertically integrated solar company First Solar, which recently announced a JV for large-scale PV development in the Philippines.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.