OCI has made inroads into the lucrative Chinese distributed photovoltaic power generation market with the goal of becoming a global green energy leader. The company plans to beef up marketing activities by cashing in on the local network it has so far accumulated.
OCI held a ground breaking ceremony for the construction of a 2.5MW photovoltaic power plant in Xiuzhou, Jiaxing, Zhejiang, China at the Hilton Hotel on May 27. Among some 30 participants at the event were OCI CEO Lee Woo-hyun and officials from its business partner CMAG and photovoltaic power panel installation companies.
OCI plans to build photovoltaic power plants with a combined capacity of 20MW in Xiuzhou, Jiaxing, Zhejiang, China by 2016. The first phase project calls for the construction of a 2.5MW photovoltaic power plant. For this, OCI established the so-called OCI Jiaxing Solar Technology in March.
The company expects the first phase of the plant to start commercial production from this August, to achieve $10 million (about 11 billion won) for 25 years and install the infrastructure on the rooftops of the Super Lighting Company and CMAG Company buildings located in the industrial hub of Jiaxing.
OCI will operate them by selling the electricity produced to the building owners first and any excess power to companies for 25 years.
“It is the first step to PV power generation business in china with the world’s largest photovoltaic power market,” an OCI official said.
According to China's National Energy Authority (NEA), the photovoltaic power generation installed in China is expected to generate a total of 17.8GW this year. Distributed generation is expected to be 6GW. In addition, the Chinese government announced policies to promote distributed photovoltaic power generation last September, and it will encourage continued distributed photovoltaic generation solar power installation in a wide range of fields such as rural and urban buildings, factories and transportation facilities.
OCI has accumulated valuable experiences through local businesses in such arenas as coal chemical development, fumed silica and Nitron Fluorine Three since 2008 when it established Shandong OCI. The company has such strengths as close networking with the local government and EPC and power installation companies.
OCI had only a 3MW-scale plant at an initial stage in 2011 when the company entered the U.S. photovoltaic power market, but the combined capacity has grown to 400MW in a short period of time, OCI CEO Lee said. “We expect this photovoltaic power plant project to serve as a platform to make inroads into the Chinese photovoltaic power generation market, the world largest one,“ he added.
OCI has focused on polisilicon, photovoltaic power generation business in the United States, and investment in a combined cycle power plant in Saemangeum. The Chinese project is expected to accelerate its investments into the Chinese photovoltaic power generation markets.
OCI, which has accumulated expertise in inorganic chemistry, petro and coal chemistry, grew to be a global leader of polysilicon in 2009, an essential material of photovoltaic power generation. The company has been strengthening its energy project portfolios by landing major contracts in the photovoltaic power generation and community energy sectors since 2012.
It was in July 2012 that OCI made inroads into the photovoltaic power generation sector. That year, the company signed a deal to supply power to CPS Energy of the United States via OCI Solar Power, a United Sates subsidiary of OCI, which calls for the construction of photovoltaic power plants capable of producing a combined 400MW in San Antonio and Chicago over five years and supplying power from the facilities to GPS for 25 years.
