Kong Sun’s PV generation soars in January-April period

Kong Sun's solar portfolio — which includes 40 projects in 13 provinces and regions throughout China — generated about 199.8 GWh of electricity throughout the same period a year earlier, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. Throughout all of 2016, its PV installations in the country generated about  838.9 GWh of electricity.

Kong Sun posted its biggest generation gains in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, where it operates five solar projects. Generation from those arrays spiked 72.2% year on year to 89.7 GWh. In the remote Xinjiang region — where Kong Sun operates 240 MW of capacity at 11 locations — electricity generation jumped 62.9% on the year to 61.2 GWh. In eastern China’s Zhejiang province, power generation from its two projects soared to 45.5 GWh, from just 16.8 GWh during the first four months of 2016.

The company’s total installed PV capacity throughout China stood at roughly 1.23 GW by the end of April, according to preliminary operating statistics. The figures suggest that the company has already added approximately 80 MW of operational PV capacity to its portfolio this year, as it reported that its cumulative installed capacity in China had reached 1.15 GW at the end of December. It passed the 1 GW mark at some point in the second half of 2016, on about 200 MW of new capacity additions.

In late March, Kong Sun recorded a $7.9 million profit for the 12 months to the end of December, up from a loss of 98.9 million yuan ($14.4 million) in 2015. The results were broadly in line with a forecast it issued in February. It connected 680.8 MW of solar capacity to the grid throughout 2016.

The company — which muscled its way into the Chinese solar market in 2014, after initial successes in property investment — continues to expand its operational PV portfolio. It now has access to a credit line of up to 5 billion yuan from Beijing-based China Kangfu International Leasing, one of its primary financing partners.