Hyundai Heavy Industries Sets Sights On Japanese Solar Market

Crisis

 By 2007, Japan already installed 1.9 GW of photovoltaic

 systems mostly on residential homes.

Above is a view of Mt. Fuji from a residential district in Tokyo. Hyundai Heavy Industries Company, the world’s largest shipbuilder, plans to sell solar cells worth 60 billion Korean won ($52.9 million) for households in Japan as part of its strategic market plan to diversify its revenue sources.

Japan is one of the world’s biggest and most mature solar energy markets. The country aims to have 14 gigawatts of photovoltaic capacity installed by 2020 and 50 GW by 2030. By 2007, it already installed 1.9 GW of photovoltaic systems mostly on residential homes.

Hyundai Heavy Industries expects its venture into the Japanese solar market to bring in about 100 billion Korean won in profits in 2011.

The company is capable of producing 30 megawatts of solar cells annually thanks to its first solar cell plant built in 2005.

Soon after the completion of its second solar factory this year, Hyundai Heavy Industries will be able to raise its annual production capacity to 330 MW, which will enable it to meet growing demand for solar cells, modules and panels.

The 300 billion Korean won investment to be poured into expanding its solar production facility is expected to help the company meet its projected sales this year of about 1 trillion Korean won.

Since entering the solar manufacturing market, the shipbuilder has closed several substantial international deals. For instance, in October 2008, it won a deal to provide Germany-based MHH Solartechnik with $40 million worth of solar modules.

In March 2009, Hyundai Heavy Industries went into producing polysilicon, an ingredient necessary in making solar cells, with the help of partner KCC Corporation, the largest manufacturer of construction materials in South Korea.

Hyundai Heavy Industries also specializes

in producing wind turbines manufactured at its Gunsan facility, the biggest in South Korea. It invested 105.7 billion Korean won to build the said facility with a 600-MW capacity of producing wind turbines rated 1.65 MW each.

Earlier this year, Hyundai Heavy Industries let a South Korean consortium that made a preliminary agreement with Yunus Brothers, Pakistan’s leading exporter and manufacturer of textiles, to build a 50-MW wind farm at Sindh in Southern Pakistan. The Sindh wind farm is expected to supply electricity to 60,000 households in the area upon its completion in mid-2010.

In January, United States-based Wave Wind L.L.C. also ordered from Hyundai Heavy Industries six 1.65-MW wind turbines that can generate 10 MW of electricity to supply 5,000 households. The wind turbines will be installed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by May this year.

Hyundai Heavy Industries has also won projects in its home country, such as an order for six wind turbines it delivered to Taebak in Gangwon Province and a 200-MW wind farm it is set to build in Jeollabuk-do, a province in the southwestern part of the country.

Hyundai Heavy Industries (Pink Sheets:HYHZF) plans to further enlarge the capacity of its Gunsan facility to 800 MW by 2013 to boost the export of its wind turbines, particularly to the United States and Europe. The company is a subsidiary of Hyundai Heavy Industries Group.