China Sunergy makes 10MW UK solar commitment

China Sunergy (CSUN), a solar cell and module manufacturer, has announced it will develop its first two solar projects in the UK.

Each solar park will have a capacity of 5MW.

As reported by PV-Tech’s sister site Solar Power Portal, the news comes on the back of an earlier announcement in October which revealed that CSUN had signed a 50MW Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a view to expand its UK presence.

The two proposed plants will be located in Cornwall and Devon as confirmed by CSUN’s country manager Yolanda Qin at trade show Solar Power UK 2012. The locations were selected based on the fact that the sites receive a high irradiation of more than 1,000kWh a year per square metre.

CSUN will arrange the construction of the projects and when complete, will own and operate the two plants. Construction is expected to begin in the forthcoming weeks and the projects are expected to complete and connect to the grid by 1 April 2013 in order to qualify for 2 renewable obligation certificates. Both projects will utilise CSUN’s polycrystalline modules.

Stephen Cai, CEO of China Sunergy, explained: “We will continue our downstream strategy, which is to increase the investment into solar projects globally. These two solar parks in the UK are just starting points for us and we look to expanding across Europe, including France, Germany, Romania, and Spain, etc., where we can achieve a healthy return rate on our projects.”