ESolar Lands Whopper Contract For Solar Thermal in ChinaWith this deal, eSolar now has a footprint in India, China, Africa and U.S. How did a company desperate for help a year ago go global in 12 months?
Analysis--The change in strategy implemented about a year ago at eSolar seems to be working.
The Pasadena, Calif.-based specialist in solar thermal technology has landed a deal to license technology to Penglai Electric, which in turn will build 2 gigawatts of solar thermal power plants by 2021. Chinese banks will finance many projects and the equipment for the plants will be manufactured by local companies. In some cases, the actual power plants could be owned by other parties and then sold back to Penglai. Construction on the first 92 megawatts begins this year.
The Chinese deal is the latest in a series of apparently successful steps in eSolar's new direction. The company, which was founded in 2007 but has technology roots that dip deeper into the past, initially planned to build and maintain its own power plant. Revenue would come from selling power. Enter the credit crisis. Although it had received VC funds from Google and others, eSolar found itself (like many other solar companies) short on cash to build infrastructure. As a result, it said it would start to license its technology and build equipment for others. It would pursue its own power plants when possible but concentrate much more on selling the know-how to established industrialists.
Last March, eSolar signed a deal with Acme Group, an Indian company that also invested $30 million in eSolar. In October, eSolar said it would hire Clean Energy Solutions in Johannesburg to run its sales and distribution operation in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, Bostwana and Namibia...
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/china-gives-esolar-contract-for-biggest-solar-thermal-plant-ever
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