GE forms joint venture to extend solar business to Chinese market

GE Power Conversion, a subsidiary of American conglomerate GE has inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Sinoma International Engineering and Yingda International Leasing to expand its solar business in China.

Under the terms of the agreement, the three companies will collaborate to develop the solar energy business in China and other overseas countries by sharing expertise, technology, financing and government relations management.

GE will provide its range of central inverters based on a modular and compact approach that were specifically designed for the solar industry.

GE Power Conversion China president Bo Liu stated that China is one of the largest solar energy users and a global market leader in producing PV hardware.

"The opportunity for growth in clean and efficient solar energy is immense as China aggressively pursues a reduction in carbon emissions," added Liu.

"This partnership brings together the best of the capabilities needed to deliver powerful, reliable and cost-effective solutions, which we expect will become the trademark for other regions to benefit from."

GE’s solar expansion is in the wake of China’s aggressive targets of achieving installed PV capacity of 10GW by 2013-end.

In addition, the government has also called for a reduction in energy use per unit of gross domestic product by at least 3.7% in 2013.

With these targets the total investment in solar investors is expected to reach to CNY4bn ($645m).