Solar Power
Hanwha Group’s solar energy business has recently been exhibiting good performance overseas, and thus the business unit most likely turned profitable in the first quarter of this year, after three unprofitable years.
According to Hanwha Group on April 24, Hanwha Q CELLS and Hanwha SolarOne, which have invested heavily in research and development amid an economic recession, have been recording good performance so far this year in Europe, North and Central America, Japan, and China, thanks to their profitable downstream business. Hence, Hanwha’s solar energy business, which posted an operating loss of 104 billion won (US$100 million) in 2013, is expected to record first-quarter operating profits in Q1. This is the first time for a business to turn a profit after 12 unprofitable quarters starting in the second quarter of 2011.
Hanwha’s solar energy business is led by Hanwha Q CELLS. The German-based solar cell maker owned by Hanwha Chemical installed a 345 kW photovoltaic (PV) flat-roof system on a retirement home of Lions Park Birkerød near Copenhagen, Denmark on April 16. It is now one of the largest flat-roof solar systems in the nation. It also finished the construction of a 24.3 MW solar power plant in Stowbridge, Cambridgeshire in March, after winning the construction project from UK-based renewable energy developer AGRenewables (AGR). The PV manufacturer also supplied more than 40,000 of its Q CELLS Q.Pro-G3 modules to a 10 MW solar PV plant in the southern English county of Somerset, U.K., built by British solar firm Solarcentury.
In addition, Hanwha Q CELLS completed the U.S.’s first 10.86 MW solar farm located on 43 acres of the Reilly Tar & Chemical Superfund site in Maywood, Indianapolis on March 9. The firm also began to install 31 MW rooftop solar systems at 120 retail stores across Mexico in March, with a targeted completion date of early 2015.
Hanwha SolarOne, on the other hand, signed an MOU with Shanghai HuiTianRan Investment Holding Group in January to provide either 700 MW modules or engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services to the Chinese firm.
The world’s eighth-largest PV module supplier last year also signed a MOU with China’s Wuxi New District Administrative Committee to establish a long-term strategic partnership to develop 100 MW downstream PV projects on March 20. On top of that, the photovoltaic manufacturing unit of Hanwha Group delivered 6.2 MW of its 72-cell solar modules (HSL72) to a consortium of Spanish companies Cobra and Gransolar for a new solar park in Guatemala in the same month.