Hanlong Group, a privately owned Chinese conglomerate, will invest $100m over a five-year period in establishing an international headquarters in Singapore for the research and development of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar systems.
The investment will be made through its wholly-owned subsidiary Sichuan Zhonghan Solar Power, which has developed its own proprietary PV technology, CPV, PV grid-connected system and CPV modules.
The R&D and system assembly of solar panels facility in Singapore is planned for completion by 2012 in Science Park II.
The system assembly operations will be outsourced to Singapore-based companies in the electronics industry, according to Jiang Shu Hong, vice general manager of Zhonghan Solar.
The Singapore facility will also manage the company’s global solar business outside China, including the sale of its CPV systems and the management of solar projects regions such as Australia, Middle East and Southeast Asia.
“We chose to set up Zhonghan Solar’s first international headquarters outside China here in Singapore because of its sterling reputation as a global hub for clean energy, in particular solar energy,” says Liu Han, chairman of Hanlong.
By 2015, the annual revenue of the international headquarters is expected to reach S$600m ($448m), totaling to accumulated revenue of S$1.75bn.
To date, Hanlong has patents in China for more than 30 CPV and solar power related technologies and products.
It is investing 7.6bn yuan ($1.1bn) to build the world’s largest CPV plant in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, which is expected to commence production in 2011. The installed capacity could reach 2 million kW.
The company says CPV power generation is 50% more efficient compared to a conventional flat panel fixed PV generating unit.
The cost of construction is also lower. Jiang says that the construction cost of CPV unit is about 5,000 yuan per kW while the flat panel PV unit would cost about 15,000 yuan per kW.
The Hanlong conglomerate has a diverse business interests such as solar power generation, wastewater treatment, mining resources development, pharmaceutical production and tourism.
Liu says the conglomerate will focus more on strengthening its solar power generation business and the renewable energy segment.
In hydro power plant projects, Hanlong has invested approximately 5.5bn yuan to develop 650MW in total capacity from four different locations in China that could generate 3 billion kWh of electricity each year.
