China Sunergy partners with Italian solar manufacturer

China Sunergy (Nasdaq:CSUN) has its first partnership in Italy as of today.

The Nanjing, China-based solar cell manufacturer entered into a six-year 53-megawatt sales framework agreement, including 3 MW to be delivered this year, with Renergies Italia, a solar module manufacturer based in Urbisaglia, Italy.

Italy is seen as one of the next big solar markets in Europe. As Spain and Germany look at lower feed-in tariffs, Italy has established a 20-year feed-in tariff of €0.44 to €0.49 per kilowatt hour (see ET Solar to sell modules to Italy). 

According to the agreement, the 53 MW of solar cells manufactured by China Sunergy can be sold to Renergies Italia between 2009 and 2014, with 5 MW to 15 MW of solar cells sold per year. Each sale is expected to be based on contracts negotiated between China Sunergy and Renergies Italia.

“An important part of China Sunergy's growth strategy has been the development of new partnerships with industry leaders across diverse geographies,” said China Sunergy CEO Ruennsheng Allen Wang in the release. “This agreement demonstrates our ability to execute on both of those initiatives despite the challenging sales environment.”

China Sunergy sells solar cell products to Chinese and overseas module manufacturers and system integrators. In March, the company inked two supply deals worth more than 500 MW with SolarMax Technology (see China Sunergy shares rise on two days of supply deals worth 500 MW) and a 10-year deal to supply up to 490 MW of solar cells to Erfurt, Germany-based module producer asola Advanced and Automotive Solar Systems.

Many other China-based solar manufacturers have faced bankruptcies or lower revenues because of oversupply (see China solar market in late 2009 spells glut, Bankruptcies start to plague Chinese solar and Bad news from Q-Cells spreads through solar supply chain).

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