Among China’s PV manufacturing giants, Jinko has been the quickest and most successful in its push into downstream project development, having brought more than 1GW of capacity online through the first quarter of this year.
However, all of that capacity has been built in China.
As such, Jinko’s 188MW win in Mexico’s tender – the fourth highest tally overall, and the third highest among solar developers – represented a breakthrough for the Shanghai-based company.
This week Jinko formally signed 15-year PPAs with Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) for the three projects it won in the tender. The projects, two in Yucatán and one in Jalisco, are expected to be online by mid-2018, and will generate more than 500GWh each year.
Jinko chairman Xiande Li hinted the company will participate in future Mexican tenders, with the next one scheduled for September.
“Mexico is an attractive market for solar power and is showing great potential which we intend to take advantage of,” says Li.
The global renewables industry was stunned by solar’s performance in Mexico’s renewables tender in March, which saw solar competing in a level playing field with wind. Solar secured 74% of the capacity up for grabs, although it may have had several advantages it will not have in future tenders.
The largest winner, Enel Green Power, took home 42% of the tender’s total, followed by Vega Solar (14%), Acciona (11%), and Jinko (9%). Other winners included China’s Envision, US-based SunPower, and a unit of Canadian Solar.
Despite solar’s trouncing of wind in the first tender, the wind industry believes future tenders will be split more evenly.
