Hanwha Solutions wins France's solar farm project
Jung-hwan Hwang
Mar 28, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
Q Cells, a renewable energy division of South Korea's Hanwha Solutions Corp., has clinched a large-scale solar energy project in France, accelerating its foray into Europe, which is looking for alternatives to Russian natural gas in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Hanwha's French unit Q Energy, formerly known as RES Mediterranee, has won the tender to build a solar farm that generates 37.7 megawatts (MW) of electricity per year to meet the annual needs of 20,000 people, Q Cells said on March 27.
The tender was held by the French Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE). The financial terms of the project were not disclosed.
Q Cells in 2021 acquired RES Mediterranee, also known as RES France, for $860 million. Established in 1999, RES is one of the top 10 renewable energy companies in France, running 5 gigawatts (GW) of energy at wind farms and solar parks.
The acquisition bulked up Q Cell's global solar capacity to 15 GW.
Since Hanwha Solutions in 2018 absorbed Q Cells, one of its subsidiaries, the company of energy and petrochemical services has been ramping up its presence in Europe through acquisitions.
It is now building a 50 MW solar energy plant in Jerez de la Frontera, a city in southern Spain, of which operation is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of this year.
Hanwha also supplied the 55 MW solar park in Gien, France, which was brought online last year, with solar modules it had developed and received the low carbon footprint certification.
Hanwha Solutions, under the Hanwha Group, is now putting efforts into producing eco-friendly products to make inroads into countries that adopt strict emission standards for all the production processes from raw material procurement to product distribution.
Since November of last year, it has secured a 21.34% stake in Norway-based polysilicon manufacturer REC Silicon ASA through two rounds of investments to ensure a stable procurement of solar cell materials in the US.
REC Silicon produces polysilicon, a raw material of solar cells, using environmentally friendly energy sources such as hydroelectric power and natural gas.
"Thanks to the relatively short periods of time to build solar farms, solar energy is drawing more attention from Europe than before, which is seeking to reduce reliance on Russian energy," said a Q Cell official.
Write to Jung-hwan Hwang at jung@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article