Yingli Green will act as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) partner on a 5MW ground mount PV project in Thailand as part of a consortium contracted by the country’s main state owned utility.
Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) has hired Yingli subsidiary Yingli Energy (Beijing) along with its consortium partners, which include local company Wattanasuk Engineering and a subsidiary of the Power Corporation of China (POWERCHINA).
The plant is located in the Thap Sakae district, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, southern Thailand. Yingli will supply 1MW of polycrystalline silicon PV modules to the project, in addition to thin film supplied by another, unnamed third party. The 1MW of Yingli modules will be supplied in the third quarter of this year, Yingli claims.
The project will be financed by EGAT, costing around THB631.5 million (US$19.4 million). Yingli Green chairman and chief executive officer Liansheng Miao called the project a “milestone” in the company’s downstream expansion strategy. Yingli is one of several major Chinese manufacturers including Hanergy and JA Solar to have diversified into downstream activity.
A report in October last year by analysts EnergyTrend stated that the Asia-Pacific region would lead the economic recovery of the global PV industry but factors including recent political unrest are thought to have been the cause for there being very few large project announcements to emerge from Thailand this year.