A joint venture firm has been created between First Solar and BELECTRIC to pursue the building of PV power plants in Europe, North Africa and the US.
PV Projects GmbH & Co. KG will be based in Germany and formalises a business relationship first forged between the companies around 10 years ago, when BELECTRIC started using First Solar’s CdTe thin-film modules in projects, mainly in Germany.
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The companies recently collaborated in the 128MWp Templin solar power plant in Germany, said to be the largest deployment of First Solar modules in Europe.
“With its industry-leading capabilities, this joint venture will ensure that our individual project obligations are delivered to the highest standards,” said Jim Hughes, First Solar's chief executive. “First Solar and BELECTRIC share a long history of excellence and we are confident about the future of this initiative, which is based on a firm foundation of mutual trust, expertise and a track record that is unrivalled in the solar energy industry.”
Both companies have huge existing project pipelines. First Solar’s pipeline stands at over 3GW, while BELECTRIC claims a pipeline of around 5GW.
Specifically in the US market, the companies will focus on smaller-scale projects below 20MW, which also includes BELECTRIC’s current 280MW pipeline in the country.
Bernhard Beck, chief executive of BELECTRIC Holding said: “By joining forces to create a world-class project delivery platform, we hope to strengthen both companies' relationships with key stakeholders including project developers and investors at a time when prices of electricity from solar power plants can already compete with the prices for conventionally generated electricity in a growing number of regions.”
Recently, financial analysts had started to note that First Solar’s ability to execute on a number of mega-scale PV power plant projects was diminishing its project pipeline in the 2014 onwards timescale and were concerned that a lack of new pipeline developments would impact future earnings.