Yingli Solar Gets $5.3 Billion to Bulk up Manufacturing
In a move that could double global manufacturing capacity, the Chinese government has agreed to loan Yingli Green Energy Holdings 36 billion yuan ($5.3 billion) to expand its manufacturing operations. The money will be channeled through the China Development Bank, a wholly government-owned lender. The bank also forked out $30 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) to Trina Solar, another growing Chinese solar company.
Yingli Green Energy Holdings, which owns the Yingli Solar brand, is one of the world’s largest vertically integrated solar firms. The two loans to Yingli and Trina Solar could have an unparalleled impact on the global solar industry.
“The loans are enough to increase the world’s solar wafer and cell capacity by 100 percent,” Jenny Chase, head of solar-energy analysis for New Energy Finance in London, told Business Week. “It will allow the Chinese companies to deliver unprecedented economies of scale.”
China is already the world’s leading producer of solar panels, and these loans will only serve to embolden that position.
Yingli separately announced that it has started construction of a new solar panel manufacturing plant able to produce up to 400 megawatts-worth of solar panels per year. By the end of the third quarter this fiscal year, Yingli expects to have 1 gigawatt of production capacity online. The $5.3 billion from China Development Bank could increase that to 5 GW.
Perhaps Yingli saw this coming when they paid up to $20 million to line the World Cup fields with massive digital advertisements.
Source: Business Week
Photo Credit: Beijing 2007
Posted on July 9th in Solar Funding by Dan.
July 12th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
[...] Over 64 games, the $20 million investment equates to $312,500 per game. Considering that FIFA officials expect to exceed a cumulative 26 billion people, an average of approximately 400 million viewers per match, and factoring the additional online and mobile audiences, both the company and solar energy industry gained exposure. For Yingli, the investment has already achieved even more with a commitment of $5.3 billion to expand its manufacturing operations. [...]
July 13th, 2010 at 6:25 am
[...] Over 64 games, the $20 million investment equates to $312,500 per game. Considering that FIFA officials expect to exceed a cumulative 26 billion people, an average of approximately 400 million viewers per match, and factoring the additional online and mobile audiences, both the company and solar energy industry gained exposure. For Yingli, the investment has already achieved even more with a commitment of $5.3 billion to expand its manufacturing operations. [...]