Chinese solar companies expanding in California
March 31, 2011 Category Alternative energy, Environment
California, one of the greenest states in the U.S., has become a major destination for Chinese solar companies. Suntech Power Holdings Co, based in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, has its U.S. headquarters in San Francisco. Suntech’s solar panels are used by California-based Google to power its data center. The 2 megawatt (MW) installation at Google’s global headquarters is the largest corporate installation in the U.S. Two other Chinese solar companies, Yingli Green Energy Holding Co and Trina Solar, also have their U.S. headquarters in California. The state accounts for half of the solar market in the North American region. In 2010, nearly 1 GW of new solar panel capacity was installed in the U.S., the highest total in the country’s history. “Today, it is incentives that drive the market,” said Brian Grenko, Director of Operations for Yingli Green Energy America. “Ultimately, technology and efficiency will be the driving forces.” Yingli sold 100 MW of solar panels in the U.S. last year and expects sales to double this year, said Grenko. With shrinking demand in Europe because of the withdrawal of incentives by some governments, U.S. solar companies are finding strong competition from Chinese players in their home market. Suntech has a 20% market share in the U.S., leading to concerns that China, which is already the largest global exporter of solar panels, is winning in one of the world’s most promising industries. In January the Massachusetts-based module manufacturer Evergreen Solar announced that it would shift its manufacturing operations to China. Canada-based Cyrium Technologies, a manufacturer of Concentration Photovoltaic (CPV) cells, is developing the largest CPV project in China, which, according to its President Harry Rozakis, “cannot be done in the U.S. because of bank and regulatory issues.” GCL Solar Energy, a subsidiary of GCL-Poly Energy, China’s largest poly-silicon producer, has hundreds of projects in the U.S., which makes it the largest investor in the U.S. solar sector. “Our top concern is policy and government support,” said Liu Yumin, President of GCL Solar, “All we need is consistent policy and to be treated as a local company,” Liu added, as reported by the China Daily.
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