Yingli shares rise on word of new sales

On a day with most solar stocks down, shares of China-based Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) are up more than eight percent today to $6 after the company announced it had signed deals with with two German PV system integrators.

City Solar Kraftwerke AG and Wirsol Deutschland GmbH are to buy 20 MW and 15 MW of photovoltaic modules, respectively, from Yingli.

Under the agreement with City Solar, one of the leading German developers and providers of large-scale PV power plants, Yingli has granted an option to purchase an additional 30 MW of PV modules in 2009.

The City Solar arrangement is the company's first business relationship with Yingli, it said today in a statement, citing the "reliable quality and stable output performance" of Yingli's modules.

The agreement with Wirsol, a German company installing solar solutions to for both residential and commercial customers, provides for a purchase of an additional 20 MW of modules in 2009.

The company said it had tested Yingli's products in its own solar park and had visited its facilities, reviewing its automation systems and quality control.

Chinese solar companies have been criticized of late for quality issues.

Yingli is a large vertically integrated PV product manufacturer that designs, manufactures and sells PV modules and designs, assembles, sells and installs PV systems. It currently has a 400 MW total annual production capacity after expanding significantly this year (see Yingli begins production of 200 MW expansion and Yingli to build solar power plant in Beijing).