China Backs Solar Firms With Europe Financing 中国继续支持国内太阳能企业

By newsdoug on June 17, 2011

Just a day after announcing an unusual plan to build wind power plants in the US (previous post), China is stepping up to bat for its embattled green energy equipment makers once more with an equally ambitious scheme to bankroll construction of solar power plants in Europe. (English article) Under this latest plan, three Chinese banks will pony up as much as $10 billion to help solar equipment and service providers China Technology Development Group (Nasdaq: CTDC) and Goldpoly New Energy (HKEx: 686) build solar plants in Europe. (company announcement) While this plan is being spearheaded by two companies with undoubtedly favorable financing from the Chinese banks, word in the market is that similar plans are in the works by other major Chinese solar equipment makers, which have seen their inventory rapidly grow amid one of their industry’s worst-ever downturns as urgency lessens to build new green energy plants in the West with the fading of the global economic crisis. As I said previously, these green energy plants are still a profitable endeavor in many Western markets due to favorable government-set prices for wind and solar energy designed to spur clean energy construction. But the rate of return doesn’t seem to have attracted much attention from Western investors, hence the need for the Chinese to come in and build and finance these overseas plants themselves. Look for more such announcements in the months ahead, providing a lift for China’s solar cell makers, but also a potential burden as they move into the less-familiar area of building and owning solar power generating stations.

Bottom line: Chinese solar cell makers are gearing up for a solar power station building spree with backing from Beijing, boosting their sales but also taking them into unfamiliar territory.

中国宣布将在美国建风电厂的消息一天之後，再度出手力挺国内绿色能源设备制造商，表示将为其在欧洲建设太阳能电厂提供融资。根据这项最新计划，中国三家银行将提供高达100亿美元的资金，支持太阳能设备及服务提供商中国科技发展集团和金保利新能源公司<0686.HK>在欧洲修建太阳能电站。这两家公司将率先获得国内银行优惠融资支持，但市场传言，中国其它大型太阳能设备制造商也在制定类似计划。该行业正处於史上最严重的低迷期之一，中国太阳能企业的库存已经快速增加，因随着全球经济危机减退，西方国家新建清洁能源电厂的紧迫感也有所消退。正如我之前所说，清洁能源电厂在许多西方国家仍有盈利空间，因为各国政府为推动清洁能源发展，对风能和太阳能设立了优惠价格。但其收益率对西方投资者来说并不太诱人，因此需要中国企业进入欧美市场，修建电厂并自行融资。未来数月，中国政府或将宣布更多类似计划，为国内太阳能电池企业提供机会，但机遇也可能成为负担，因为他们将前往人生地不熟的地方修建太阳能电站。

一句话：中国太阳能电池制造商正在北京支持下，加速对外扩张。虽然销售会受到提振，但厂家们也将进入一个陌生领地。