BEIJING, June 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- On June 19th, 2012, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his entourage left Beijing for an official visit to four countries in South America, arriving on the afternoon of June 25th in Santiago, Chile, the last stop of his trip. On the evening of his arrival, Premier Wen attended a welcome banquet hosted by President Sebastian Pinera. Before the start of the officially scheduled activities, Premier Wen met with staff from the Chinese Embassy and representatives of overseas Chinese in Chile as well as representatives of Chinese enterprises with investments in Chile. CEO Mrs. Amy Zhang attended on behalf of Sky Solar.
Premier Wen and President Pinera held a range of meetings, including the announcement of a strategic partnership completing the supplementary agreements to the bilateral free trade agreement. Premier Wen and President Pinera agreed to set up a structure for cooperation between the two governments and to develop a common action plan between the two countries.
During the visit, representatives from the Chinese Embassy and Trade Commission in Chile, ProChile, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and key representatives from the Chilean financial firms and institutions attended a signing ceremony. Mrs. Amy Zhang, CEO of Sky Solar, Mrs. Guo Mingshe, Planning Director for China Development Bank and Mr. Christian Brinck, CEO of Sigdo Koppers represented the three parties and signed a cooperation framework agreement for the investment in and construction of 300MW of solar photovoltaic power plant projects in Chile with a total investment of US$900 million. This collaboration formally begins the start of the grid-parity solar PV market in South America.
Sky Solar has long been committed to the development of grid-parity PV markets. In early 2010, Sky Solar began to develop and invest in a number of high sun irradiation countries, the most important of these being Chile. Chile's politically stable government and policies, strong investment environment, electricity demand and the governments increasing focus on renewable energy makes it one of the most attractive PV markets in the world. During Shanghai's SNEC PV exhibition in May 2012, Sky Solar officially announced their Chilean projects and achievements and declared a new era of global energy commercialization of PV grid-parity projects.
Sky Solar & Sigdo Koppers have been developing a pipeline of more than 300MW of PV projects over a number of stages. Sky Solar expects to gradually break ground this year starting with a 2MW pilot project followed by an 18MW ground mounted project. The remaining projects are expected to be at least 150MW and will be carried out over the next 18 months.
Sky Solar is a leading global renewable energy and PV power plant developer, investor and operator. Sigdo Koppers is a leading Chilean company focusing on construction and industrial installation. Together, both companies believe that their cooperation on building a series of PV power plants is a significant milestone in the promotion of bilateral economic and trade between the two countries, and will greatly improve Chile's renewable energy development.
In addition, China Development Bank, a Chinese government owned financial institution enjoys a sovereign grade credit rating and plays a pivotal role in helping finance and support infrastructure and construction of large-scale projects both in China and abroad. A focus of China Development Bank is in the renewable energy field, where they hold a wealth of experience. In early 2012, China Development Bank entered the Chilean energy market and has promised to give its greatest effort and support for the project financing of renewable energy projects.
Throughout its active involvement in the Chilean renewable energy market, Sky Solar has continually been offered great help and assistance from the Chinese Embassy and Trade Commission in Chile, various departments of the Chilean government, the Chilean Embassy in Beijing and the Chilean Consulate in Shanghai. In particular, the Trade Commissioner based in the ProChile office in Shanghai has played an integral role in the success of Sky Solar's business development in Chile. This assistance has further strengthened the confidence that Sky Solar has in the investment, development and execution of PV projects in Chile.
