Greentech Lead U.S: SunPower, a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer
of high-efficiency solar cells, solar panels and solar systems, has signed an
agreement to form joint venture with partners Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor
(TZS), Inner Mongolia Power Group (IMP) and Hohhot Jinqiao City Development
Company (HJCD) for the manufacturing and deployment of the company’s
proprietary SunPower C7 Tracker (C7) concentrator technology in the Chinese
market.
The joint venture, based in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, PRC,
will manufacture and deploy SunPower’s high efficiency, C7 concentrator solar
systems in Inner Mongolia and other regions in China. Under the terms of
the definitive agreement, SunPower will invest $15 million, of the total
capitalization of the joint venture of $60 million, for a 25 percent
ownership stake.
The joint venture is subject to the approval of the PRC
government with initial C7 deployment expected to begin by the end of
2013.
Tom Werner, SunPower president and CEO, said,
“Working together with our team of strong local partners who bring
different strengths to this project, we believe that we can deploy significant
volumes of C7 power plants to help serve China’s growing need for clean
power. We also expect that this venture will facilitate the development
of a low cost, high volume C7 supply chain and accelerate our C7 cost reduction
roadmap.”
The SunPower C7 Tracker combines single-axis tracking
technology with rows of parabolic mirrors, reflecting light onto 22.8 percent
efficiency SunPower Maxeon cells, the world’s most efficient commercially available
solar cells.
Using mirrors to reduce the number of solar cells
required to generate electricity lowers the levelized cost of energy by up to
20 percent compared to competing technologies. For example, a 400-MW C7 power
plant requires less than 70 MW of SunPower solar cells.