Datang posts $81.2 million net profit in H1

Datang’s consolidated installed PV capacity hit 147.47 MW, up just 7.3% from the preceding year. Its bigger solar projects include 60 MW of operational capacity in China’s remote Qinghai province and 49 MW in the country’s Ningxia region, according to a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Revenue spiked 16.3% year on year to CNY 3.46 billion, according to unaudited results for the the first six months of the year. Sales of electricity accounted for the bulk of its revenue for the first half of 2017, although its transmission and EPC businesses generated combined revenue of CNY 39.62 million.

Average utilization of Datang’s PV projects throughout China reached 797.14 hours in the January-June period, up roughly 4% from the first six months of 2016. Utilization was highest in northern China’s Shanxi province, at 916.85 hours, and lowest in the coastal province of Jiangsu, at 543.56 hours.

Datang generated 3,937.3 GWh of electricity in the second quarter of 2017, up 19.2% year on year. Its wind projects accounted for roughly 98.2% of total production, although electricity generated by solar arrays and other renewables projects jumped 32.1% year on year in the second quarter to 71,108 MWh.

Throughout the rest of this year, Datang said it plans to continue to work on a number of undisclosed solar projects under the Chinese government’s Top Runner program. The diversified renewables developer — a unit of state-owned power group China Datang — recorded a profit attributable to shareholders of CNY 198.2 million in 2016, up significantly from just CNY 13.7 million in 2015.