SunPower today announced plans to partner with Apple to build two 20MW solar power projects in ABA Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefectures in Sichuan Province, China.
The projects will be co-owned by Apple and Sichuan Shengtian New Energy Development, which is SunPower's project development joint venture.
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The projects include Hongyuan Huanju Ecological Energy located in Hongyuan County and Ruoergai Huanju Ecological Energy (Zioge) located in Ruoergai County. These are the first solar projects deployed in the ABA Region.
The plants are expected to provide up to 80 million kilowatt-hours per year.
They are now in construction with completion expected in the final quarter of 2015.
The Hongyuan project already has 2MW connected to the grid utilizing SunPower's LCPV tracker. This technology combines single-axis tracking technology with rows of parabolic mirrors, reflecting light onto high efficiency SunPower Maxeon solar cells.
The China projects are SunPower's first international solar collaboration with Apple, however, the company has previously partnered with Apple on six US solar projects totaling 90MW in California, Nevada and North Carolina.
Tom Werner, president and chief executive of SunPower, said: “This is a tremendous groundbreaking collaboration, bringing together a diverse group of experienced partners from different parts of the globe to build renewable solar energy ventures that contribute to the local economy and the environment.
“Our unique, existing partnerships in China allowed for these projects to come to fruition quickly. These projects will provide clean, renewable energy, help address climate change, and continue to provide agricultural benefits to the local farmers, while protecting the area's precious land.”
Last October SunPower committed to US$20 million investment into its Shengtian joint venture to develop and own at least 3GW of photovoltaic power plants in China.
SunPower’s first China joint venture with Huaxia CPV (Inner Mongolia) Power now has three 50MW production lines in operation.
