Speaker
Description
Back in 2010, in the midst of crisis in the European solar sector, Hanwha took the bold step to strategically enter into the green energy sector in order to turn it into a long-term growth driver for the Korean Global Fortune 500 company. While European players like Siemens or Shell stepped out of the PV module business, Hanwha entered the sector with the acquisition of Solarfun in China. Only 2 years later, Hanwha acquired the then insolvent German solar pioneer Q-Cells to embark and what has turned out to be over a decade of growth and success in solar. From its technology Headquarters in Germany, Qcells has developed its European business from a pure manufacturer of solar modules into a provider of clean energy solutions for private and commercial end customers.
However – while of great importance – solar energy won’t be able to deliver the European energy transition alone. Neither will solutions for end customers suffice to reach the ambitious climate targets of the European Union: The EU aims to reach a share of 45% of renewable energy production by as soon as 2030, plans to install 100 GW of renewable energy sources every year as well as targets net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The talk will shed light on how Hanwha took the next step in 2022 and formed Q ENERGY. Founded on 1st of July 2022, the company combines two European green energy power houses: The former solar power plant division of Qcells with more than 15 successful years in the solar downstream business and Hanwa’s recent acquisition of the French entity of British renewable energy developer RES-Group. Together they launched Q ENERGY with a 12 GW development pipeline across Europe and more than 300 employees.
Q ENERGY develops, builds and manages green energy assets with its technology portfolio spanning from solar, to onshore and offshore wind, to large scale energy storage. Being active in France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and the UK, Q ENERGY operates along the entire value chain of green energy projects – from green-field-development, to engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), to operations & maintenance (O&M), to creating value for green energy investors, all the way to acting as an independent power producer (IPP).
Only one year after the company’s foundation, Q ENERGY has surpassed the mark of 400 employees and increased its pipeline by more than 3GW. Today, the company actively develops a 15 GW pipeline of green energy projects in Spain (6 GW), France (5.6 GW), Portugal (2 GW) and Germany (900 MW). But Q ENERGY also has green power plants in the pipeline in the Netherlands, the UK and Italy. More than 500 MW have already been successfully installed in recent months. This brings the total integrated capacity across Europe to over 2.5 GW.
The talk will also cover the growth plans of Q ENERGY in the coming years and how it plans to leverage synergies within Hanwha Group to strongly expand its activities in the European Offshore wind sector.
References
Our Head of Offshore Wind, Chanhee Son, will also do a presentation later that day.
| Keywords | Green Energy, Solar, Offshore Wind, Energy Storage Systems, European energy transition |
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