GCL unit eyes overseas revenue from solar

GCL New Energy Holdings Ltd workers build a solar power station in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region in May 2016. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Eyes 30 percent of sales from abroad by 2020

Chinese mainland clean-power producer GCL New Energy Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of Golden Concord Holdings Limited (GCL), is looking to boost its overseas sales revenue to 30 percent of the total by 2020 through increasing solar energy project exports, its company executive said.

The Suzhou-based company will focus on expanding the markets in developed countries such as the United States, Japan, and Australia, and plan to set up branches there, said GCL New Energy President Sun Xingping.

Sun said its overseas business would grow faster in the foreseeable future, with the percentage of installed capacity of solar power in foreign markets amounting to 30 percent of the total.

The company's press office said the current proportion was less than 5 percent. It has installed several rooftop-distributed power plants in the US and Japan, and two ground-based plants in South Africa.

The firm is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, and has businesses mainly in solar farms' construction, operation and management. A person familiar with the company said its accumulated installed capacity for solar power reached 4,000 mW by the end of 2016, jumping to the second in the world following Beijing-based State Power Investment Corp whose accumulated installed capacity for solar power was 7,120 mW.

To reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the Chinese government last year rolled out a series of policies to boost renewable energy, with a focus on promoting the solar energy industry.

In May 2016, the National Development and Reform Commission released a notice on the purchase of electricity generated by wind and solar power, to ensure that renewable energy receives the highest priority. The firm's interim report shows the revenue of the group's solar energy business has increased by nearly 233 percent year-on-year to 929 million yuan in the first six months of last year.

In the same period, there was corresponding increase in profit－the figure surged to 261 million yuan, up by approximately 129 percent from a year earlier.

The company has operated 68 solar power plants spanning 19 provinces nationwide in the first half of 2016, compared to 17 plants in the same period in the previous year. The total capacity amounted to 2,735 mW by June 2016, representing a year-on-year growth of 254 percent.

In 2013, China overtook Germany to become the world's biggest market for solar power, with its newly installed solar capacity up by 232 percent year-on-year to 12 gW, according to the Global Renewable Energy Report 2014.

Li Wenxue, president of the Xi'an-based Lerri Solar Technology Limited Company, said: "Distributed power generation, especially rooftop distributed power plants, will develop rapidly in the next few years."

Data shows China's solar energy industry has gained a strong growth momentum, as the country attempts to meet the commitment to allowing carbon dioxide emissions to peak around 2030.

China's newly installed solar power capacity grew by 52 percent year-on-year to 7.14 gWin the first quarter of 2016 and the accumulated solar energy installed capacity is more than 50 gW, according to the National Energy Administration of China.