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.
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.
