China's A-Power to buy Japanese solar firm in $50m deal

Chinese wind turbine maker A-Power Energy Generation Systems has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to acquire troubled Evatech of Japan for $50m (£30m) as part of its efforts to expand into the thin-film solar technology market.

Up to 45 per cent of the purchase price will be funded through government subsidies, said Nasdaq-listed A-Power, in announcing the MOU earlier this week. The governments of Liaoning province and its capital, Shenyang, where the company is based, have policies to support the development of alternative energy by local companies.

Privately held Evatech, which manufactures industrial equipment for LCDs and plasma display panels, has been developing thin-film photovoltaic technologies that A-Power intends to use as a foundation for a foray into the solar market.

Evatech has developed an atmospheric-pressure chemical vapour deposition manufacturing technique and transparent conducting oxide (TCO) glass, which it claims will help reduce thin-film cell production costs and enhance their photoelectric conversion rate.

A-Power, one of China's largest makers of distributed power generation systems, earlier this year launched a plant to manufacture wind turbines using technologies licensed from Germany's Fuhrländer and Denmark-based Norwin.

The company also has agreements with utility companies in China to build three biomass plants in the country as it seeks to establish itself as a major player in the booming Chinese renewable energy market.

In contrast, Evatech is currently going through a corporate and debt restructuring process in Japanese courts.

A-Power said its acquisition of the company is expected to be finalised by November.

A-Power said that it plans to keep Evatech's two research and development centres in Japan, while moving the production of thin-film PV cells and TCO glass coating to China. Evatech products are sold in 10 countries outside Japan, with China ranking as its largest overseas market.