Chinese module manufacturer Suntech is targeting an increase in its market share for PV modules in the Benelux countries from 3% to 13% by 2015.
Suntech announced deals, projects and partnerships with three companies to support this aim. This includes a renewed agreement to provide technology and products to one Dutch company, Oskomera Solar Power Solutions, which has a 175MW project portfolio.
Suntech has also supplied a batch of 1,500 solar panels to a project in Den Bosch, also the Netherlands, as part of a deal to supply VDH Solar, which in turn is supplying the project’s developer Solar Green Point. The project, Solar Park Gruyterfabriek, is expected to be completed by the end of this year and will be joined by another 6MW of PV projects along Dutch motorways in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, for which Suntech will again partner with VDH Solar.
Suntech said that from a current 3% market share in the Benelux countries, it wants to expand to 13% by 2015. The company’s strategy is to integrate ownership of clean energy assets as well as manufacturing into its operations.
VDH Solar’s owner Lucien van der Heide hailed Suntech’s strictly audited quality control processes.
“For years, we have witnessed their panels in operation, which work considerably above the average performance levels, producing more than one hundred and five percent of the installed capacity,” van der Heide said.
Suntech has emerged from turbulent times recently to arrive in PV Tech’s list of top module manufacturers for 2014, which was compiled by senior news editor Mark Osbourne last month. Suntech’s majority investor, Cheng Kin Ming, revealed in September that he wants to install 50GW of PV generation capacity worldwide in the next 10 years.
Simon de Sitter, Suntech director for Benelux, France and Scandinavia as well as the Netherlands Antilles Caribbean territory said the interest of Cheng Kin Ming’s Shunfeng International Clean Energy business has strongly assisted Suntech’s competitiveness.
“Thanks to our acquisition by Shunfeng International Clean Energy Ltd., Suntech has emerged with the strongest financial footing in the solar industry, enabling us to expand our presence across Europe while supporting small and large-scale projects,” de Sitter said.
