Satcon Technology Corp., a provider of utility-scale power products for the renewable energy market, has entered into a strategic manufacturing agreement with GCL Solar Systems Ltd., a China-based utility-scale solar photovoltaic power plant developer.
The agreement focuses on production of Satcon's 500 kW PowerGate Plus line of solar PV inverters for the Asia Pacific market. Under the terms of the agreement, GCL Solar is commissioning a manufacturing facility in Nanjing, China, that is expected to be capable of producing over 500 MW of PowerGate Plus inverters in 2011.
Satcon is expected to provide GCL Solar with the core manufacturing processes and technologies for the PowerGate Plus solutions for final assembly at the GCL Solar plant. GCL Solar has agreed to purchase from Satcon the capacity to produce a minimum of 300 MW per year out of the GCL Nanjing operation. The inverters manufactured at the Nanjing facility under this agreement are expected to be sold by GCL Solar into the Chinese solar PV market and used on GCL Solar-funded utility solar developments around the world.
Production in the Nanjing manufacturing facility is expected to begin in March 2011, and – when combined with the expanded Burlington, Ontario, operations – is expected to increase worldwide manufacturing capacity to over 2 GW annually, according to Satcon.
SOURCE: Satcon