Energy

Yingli's $5.3b loan may help China double global solar panel supply

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-07-09 11:28

China may double the world's capacity for making solar panels by loaning Yingli Green Energy Holding Co 36 billion yuan ($5.3 billion) to expand production, a Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst said.

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The funds from the State-run China Development Bank Corp follow lending of 50 billion yuan to Suntech Power Holdings Co and 30 billion yuan for Trina Solar Ltd in April, New Energy Finance said. The three New York-traded companies are China's biggest solar firms by market value.

"The loans are enough to increase the world's solar wafer and cell capacity by 100 percent," said Jenny Chase, head of solar-energy analysis for New Energy Finance in London. "It will allow the Chinese companies to deliver unprecedented economies of scale."

The money will allow China to strengthen its position as the world's largest maker of solar panels used to generate electricity from the sun's rays. Yingli and its Chinese competitors shipped 43 percent of the world's solar panels last year, according to the London-based research group owned by Bloomberg LP.

Yingli will use the funds to finance both domestic development and boost its overseas business, the Baoding-based company said in a statement on its website. The company didn't provide further details or disclose terms of the loan.

China Development Bank also extended an 8-year loan of $70 million to Yingli in December 2008 to fund expansion. The company said in a separate statement it has started production on a solar panel factory able to make 400 megawatts of generation capacity a year.

It expects its newest production lines to reach full capacity by the end of the third quarter of 2010, raising its total output capacity to 1 gigawatt.

The China Development Bank loan may be enough to raise Yingli's production capacity to as much as 5 gigawatts, Chase said.