OCI President Lee Woo-hyun

OCI, which has disposed of the photovoltaic power plant Alamo 7 in Texas being built by its subsidiary, OCI Solar Power, plans to reinvest the proceeds in the U.S. power generation market, it said. 

OCI said on Jan. 11 that it has signed a deal to sell Alamo 7 to the American energy company Con Edison Development for $227 million. Alamo 7 is the seventh installment in the 450-megawatt Alamo Project for OCI Solar Power, the San Antonio-based affiliate of OCI. Alamo is a 106-megawatt photovoltaic power plant, the second largest of the Alamo Project.

OCI Solar Power President Yoon Seog-hwan said OCI Solar Power’s winning the photovoltaic power plant order and disposing it for better terms will lead to the strengthening of its financial soundness and more investments to come in the U.S. power generation market. 

OCI Solar Power is now operating Alamo 1 & 2. The company, which has already disposed of Alamo 3, 4 & 5, is now constructing Alamo 6. 

The latest sale of a photovoltaic power plant is in accordance with a strategic consideration of the current market conditions, said an OCI official, adding that OCI plans to strengthen its presence in the photovoltaic power plant market. 

OCI’s focus on the photovoltaic power business is designed to create demand for polysilicon, OCI’s mainstay product, and stabilize its monetary flows, analysts said. But the photovoltaic power business is accompanied by huge investments at an early stage, so OCI’s disposal of Alamo 7 may be construed as a step towards securing money for implementing additional photovoltaic power projects, they said. 

OCI also operates photovoltaic power plants in Xizou, China. The company is constructing photovoltaic power plants in Hongzou, Wuxi, and Yantai. OCI is trying to tap the Indian photovoltaic power market. In Korea, the company built and sold four 17-megawatt photovoltaic power plants. 

OCI, which began to produce polysilicon, a material used in the production of photovoltaic power panels, has an annual production capacity of 52,000 tons, the third largest in the world. 

This photo shows the location of the seven photovoltaic power plants OCI Solar Power has already built or now building under the Alamo Project in Texas, the United States. (Photos:OCI)

OCI Forges Alliance with Bridgestone to Generate Photovoltaic Power

OCI has teamed up with Bridgestone, the world’s largest tire and rubber company, to expand its presence in the Chinese photovoltaic power generation market. 

OCI signed a deal to install a 4.6MW photovoltaic power plant on the rooftop of the Bridgestone plant in Wuxi, Jiangsu, and supply power for the next 25 years. Under the agreement, OCI will supply power from the photovoltaic plant to Bridgestone on a gradual basis. The deal is forecast to bring $19 million (some 22.3 billion won) in revenues to OCI during the 25-year period. 

Earlier, OCI singed an MOU with the Wuxi municipal government on the development of photovoltaic power plants with a combined capacity of 200MW. OCI’s project with Bridgestone is the first one done under the agreement with the Wuxi municipal government. 

Bridgestone ranked 1st in the global tire market in terms of sales as of 2014. The company supplies tires from the Wuxi plant to Japanese and other global automakers, including Honda, Volkswagen, GM and Ford. 

Under the latest agreement, OCI will be charged with the construction and operation of the photovoltaic power plant, and Bridgestone will supply the site and structures of its Wuxi plant for power generation.

“OCI’s collaboration project with Bridgestone will serve as an opportunity to aggressively penetrate the Chinese photovoltaic power market, which emerges as the world’s largest market, in order to secure growth and profitability,” said OCI President Lee Woo-hyun.