Solar Module Super League member JA Solar has signed an agreement with the Paramount Group, a Bangladeshi energy organisation, to provide PV modules to its under-construction 150MW solar project in Bangladesh.
The Paramount Group expects to finish construction of the project by the end of this year, and the facility will be the second-largest PV plant in Bangladesh by capacity upon its completion. While JA Solar did not specify which of its modules would be used for the project, the company unveiled a new module, the DeepBlue 4.0 Pro, at SNEC earlier this year, and its leadership is optimistic about expanding its footprint into the Bangladeshi solar market.
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“Paramount Group has far-reaching influence in Bangladesh, and JA Solar is honoured to establish cooperation with Paramount Group,” said JA Solar sales director of Southeast Asia Daniel Li. “We hope that the cooperation between JA Solar and Paramount Group will promote the popularisation and application of PV in Bangladesh and create more value for the Bangladeshi PV market.”
The news is the latest encouraging development JA Solar’s role in the Bangladeshi solar industry in particular, and the country’s energy transition more broadly. In 2018, the company provided all of the modules for Bangladesh’s first utility-scale project, a 28MW farm built by Bangladeshi firm Joules Power.
Earlier this year, the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet and the Asian Development announced plans to provide funding to accelerate the energy transition in five countries, including Bangladesh. The national government is aiming to meet 40% of its energy demand by 2041, and 100% of its power demand by 2050, but has already struggled to meet its targets in the lead up to these deadlines.
The government aimed to generate 10% of its total energy from renewable sources by 2021, but as of June this year, less than 5% of its electricity came from clean power, according to the East Asia Forum. This is also true in the solar sector, where the government targeted an installed solar capacity of 2GW by 2021, after JA Solar’s first investment in the country, but as of 2022, the installed solar capacity was 1.7GW.
Despite these struggles, the presence of a global solar manufacturer in the country will contribute to growth in the Bangladeshi solar sector, and help it achieve its targets.
“As a leading PV company, JA Solar has won a good reputation worldwide for its excellent technical strength and product quality,” said Paramount Group chair Shakhawat Hossain. “We look forward to working together to promote the development of Bangladesh’s PV market through the signing of this agreement.”
