Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. () is a Chinese producer of solar panels, with  of annual production capacity by the end of 2011. It is headquartered in Wuxi, Jiangsu. Shunfeng International Clean Energy Limited, a HKSE listed renewable energy investment and Independent Power Producer company, acquired Suntech in 2014 following Suntech's bankruptcy in 2013. With offices or production facilities in every major market, Suntech has delivered more than 13,000,000 solar panels to thousands of companies in more than 80 countries around the world. As the center for the company's global operations, Suntech headquarters, in Wuxi, China, features the world's largest building integrated solar facade.

Suntech's fortunes have declined significantly since its peak in 2008, due to a glut in the market for solar products and problems with its investments. In March 2013 it announced a US$541 million bond payment default, becoming the first company from mainland China to default on its US bonds.
Chinese banks subsequently filed to place Suntech's main unit, Wuxi Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd., into insolvency.  The company's American Depository Receipts were subsequently delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and placed on the over the counter (OTC) exchange.

Founder 
Dr Shi Zhengrong (born c. 1963) was the founder of Suntech Power and, until 2013, its chairman and chief executive officer.

He is a graduate of the University of New South Wales' (UNSW) School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering. At UNSW, Dr. Shi studied under Professor Martin Green and met Stuart Wenham, later to be Suntech's Chief Technology Officer.

In 2007, Dr. Shi was named one of Time Magazine's Heroes of the Environment and referred to as the world's first 'green billionaire'.  Dr. Shi was honored in January 2010 as a finalist for the Zayed Future Energy Prize. Dr. Shi was also appointed Visiting Professor at UNSW.

Global operations 
Suntech Power has representative offices in China, Australia, the United States, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan, and Dubai, as well as production facilities in Wuxi, Luoyang, Qinghai, Shanghai, Germany, Japan, and Goodyear, Arizona.

Suntech America was based in San Francisco, California, and had plans to start a production facility in Phoenix, Arizona in 2010. In 2009, Suntech had executives of their US operations in top posts in American solar panel industry groups.

Installations 
Suntech Power has supplied or installed solar modules for numerous solar power plants and systems around the world. Notable installations include:

 Clif Bar Headquarters
 The Wharf, home of the Sydney Theatre Company (Sydney, Australia)
 Alamosa Power Plant (Colorado, US)
 Arizona State University (Arizona, US)
 Beijing National Stadium (Beijing, China)
 Elecnor Power Plant (Trujillo, Spain)
 Masdar City Solar Farm (Abu Dhabi, UAE)
 Nellis Air Force Base (Nevada, US)
 Expo 2010 Shanghai (Shanghai, China)
 Ketura Sun (Kibbutz Ketura, Israel)

The company's Suntech Energy Solutions division completed Google's 1.6 MW solar installation in June 2007.

Suntech Power joined with Israeli company Solarit Doral to build a 50 kW rooftop project in the Israeli settlement of Katzrin in the Golan Heights, which was connected to the electricity grid in December 2008.

Suntech panels were used on the Ketura Sun field, the first commercial solar field in Israel. The field was developed by the Arava Power Company.

In 2010, Suntech topped the solar panel shipment with 1.49 GW shipment volume, according to PVinsights. Suntech targets to ship over 2 GW in 2011; however, free price fall for solar components in 2011 made this more difficult to achieve. During the downturn of solar panel price, Chinese companies showed their ability to compete in cost management.

On the very first day of the third quarter in 2011, SunTech announced that they would terminate their long-term wafer contract with MEMC by paying $120 million.

Market share of the top five Chinese solar companies ranked in 2011, which are Suntech, Yingli, Trina, Canadian and Jinko, made a huge advancement from 17.2% market share in 2009 to 30% market share in 2011. The five Chinese solar module companies almost doubled their totaling market share in 2.5 years and took nearly one-third of the worldwide market.

Awards 
Suntech Power was recognized as the 2008 Frost & Sullivan Solar Energy Development Company of the Year. Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Mary John commented on the recognition, "The company's pioneering success in developing energy-efficient, cost-effective and customizable building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems and crystalline PV cells, and modules for solar energy conversion into electricity are highly commendable. It has gone beyond just meeting global energy needs to anticipating them as well and highly satisfied customers testify that the BIPV systems and other energy-efficient products are customized precisely to their needs."

The Andalay AC Solar PV Panel was awarded one on MSN's most brilliant products of 2009 because of innovations that advanced their ease of installation and use.  Suntech Power is one of the main manufacturers of components for the Andalay Solar Panel sold by Akeena Solar (AKNS).

Financial activities 
Before going public on the NYSE in 2005, Suntech was funded by a consortium of private equity firms, including Actis Capital and Goldman Sachs.  The consolidated private equity investment into Suntech is generally considered to be one of China's most profitable private equity investments ever, as each firm is thought to have made gains well over 10x on their original investments. The company's stock performed quite well after its first day of IPO on Dec 14th, 2005.

GSF became biggest partner of Suntech and in 2010, almost all the international sales were through GSF. In June 2008, Suntech invested into their biggest partner, Global Solar Fund (GSF), a company investing in power plants in Spain and Italy. In May 2010, Suntech guaranteed a finance arrangement of €554.2 million provided by China Development Bank to companies related to GSF, using €560 million in German government bonds from GSF Capital as collateral. There was no issue related with transparency and GSF was wrongly blamed for failure of Suntech (evident from Earnings call, Chairman comments) However, on 30 July 2012 Suntech revealed that the bonds didn't exist, they were apparently forgeries. In the following week, Suntech shares lost 40% of their value.

Decline
Suntech announced in 2013 that it will be closing its Goodyear, Arizona, panel manufacturing plant. The reason given for the closure was the hefty tariffs imposed on Chinese solar cells by the United States International Trade Commission.  Though the panels were assembled in Arizona, the cells were produced in China.

Bankruptcy
In 2013 the solar industry faced over capacity.

Suntech, defaulted on $541 million of convertible bonds in March 2013. On March 20, 2013, the main subsidiary of Suntech filed for bankruptcy in Jiangsu, China. In February 2014, Suntech filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in Manhattan, New York, to seek protection from U.S. creditors. A creditors’ working group led by distressed debt funds Clearwater Capital Partners LLC and Spinnaker Capital Ltd. announced in August a plan to recapitalize the solar maker, the company said in a statement.

See also

Solar power in China

References

External links
 Suntech website

Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Photovoltaics manufacturers
Manufacturing companies of China
Companies based in Wuxi
Companies established in 2001
Solar energy in China
Chinese brands
Companies that have filed for bankruptcy in the People's Republic of China
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2014
썬텍 파워 주식회사 Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (중국어: 尙德電力; pinyin: Shàngdé) (NYSE: STP)는 세계 최대의 태양광 패널 제조회사이다. 2010년 말에 연 생산량 1800메가와트를 달성하였다. 주요 글로벌 시장마다 사무실 혹은 생산기지를 보유하고 있으며 1300만기의 태양광 패널을 세계 80여개국 수천개 기업에 공급하고 있다. 중국 우시에 있는 본사는 국제업무의 총지휘부로 세계최대의 건물 일체형 태양광패널(BAPV)이 정면에 장착되어 있다.

설비관련 
썬텍파워는 세계 각지의 여러 태양광 발전소와 설비를 시공하고 공급해 왔다. 주목할 만한 시설은 아래와 같다.
 Clif Bar Headquarters
 The Wharf, Sydney Theatre Company Headquerters (Sydney, Australia)
 Alamosa Power Plant (Colorado, USA)
 Arizona State University (Arizona, USA)
 Beijing National Stadium (Beijing, China)
 Elecnor Power Plant (Trujillo, Spain)
 Masdar City Solar Farm (Abu Dhabi, UAE)
 Nellis Air Force Base (Nevada, USA)
 Expo 2010 Shanghai (Shanghai, China)
 Ketura Sun (Kibbutz Ketura, Israel)

또한 썬텍의 에너지 솔루션 부서는 2007년 6월 구글사의 1.6메가와트급 태양광 설비를 완공했다. 썬텍파워는 이스라엘계 Solarit Doral사와 협력하여 골란고원 Katzrin의50킬로와트급 지붕형 발전설비 프로젝트에 참여했고 2008년 12월부터 전력망과 연결되었다. 썬텍의 태양광패널은 이스라엘 최초의 상업용 태양광시설인 Ketura Sun field에 이용되었다. 이 시설은 Arava Power Company가 개발한 것이다. 2010년 썬텍은 태양광 패널 선적량에서 1.49기가와트를 달성하여 최고 선적량을 기록하였다(PVinsights자료 참고). 2011년부터 2기가이상의 선적량을 달성할 계획이 있었으나, 태양광 부속품 가격이 2011년부터 자유가격화하면서 이 목표는 달성하기 어려워졌다. 태양광패널 가격 침체기에 중국회사들은 원가관리에서 우월한 경쟁력을 드러내었다. 2011년 3분기 첫날, 썬텍은 위약금 1억2천만 달러를 지불하고MEMC와의 웨이퍼(기판) 장기계약을 파기한다고 선언하였다. 2011년 조사된 중국 5대 태양광업체인 썬텍, 잉리, Trina, Canadian, Jinko의 시장점유율은 2009년 17.2%에서 2011년 30%로 대폭 상승하였다. 5대 중국 태양광 모듈 업체는 거의 2년 반만에 총 시장점유율을 2배로 늘려 세계시장의 3분의 1을 점유하게 되었다.

글로벌 기업활동 
썬텍파워는 중국, 호주, 미국, 스위스, 스페인, 이탈리아, 독일, 일본, 두바이(UAE)에 대표 사무실이 있고 중국 우시(Wuxi/無錫), 뤄양(Luoyang/洛陽), 칭하이(Qinghai/靑海), 상하이(上海), 그리고 독일, 일본, 또한 미국 아리조나 Goodyear에 생산시설이 있다. 썬텍 아메리카는 캘리포니아 샌프란시스코주에 있으며, 아리조나 피닉스에서 2010년부터 생산시설을 운용할 계획이다. 또한 미국 태양광 사업 그룹(American solar panel industry groups)의 중요 직책에 실무자를 파견하고 있다.

수상내역 
썬텍파워는 2008년 Frost & Sullivan Solar Energy Development Company of the Year를 수상했다. . Frost & Sullivan의 연구분석가 Mary John은 말한다. ”이 회사의 높은 에너지 효율성과 합리적 가격, 그리고 건축물 일체형의 다양한 고객수요 맞춤이 가능한 BIPV시스템과 결정 PV전지, 그리고 태양광 에너지 전력전환기술 영역에서의 선구자적 성공사례는 매우 고무적입니다. 전 세계의 에너지 수요에 부응할 뿐 아니라 고객들도 그들의 수요에 정확히 일치하는 맞춤형 BIPV시스템과 다른 고 에너지 효율성 제품에 대해 높은 만족도를 나타내고 있습니다.”

Andalay AC의 태양광PV패널은 2009년 MSN이 선정한 가장 훌륭한 제품으로 선정되었다. 설비시공과 운용의 편리성을 제고한 혁신이 선정 이유였다. 썬텍파워는 Akeena Solar(AKNS)가 판매하는 Andalay Solar Panel의 부속을 공급하는 주요업체이기도 하다.

창립 
스정롱(施正榮 Shi Zheng Rong)박사는 썬텍파워의 창립자, 회장 겸 CEO이다. 그는 호주 뉴사우스웨일즈 대학의 School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering의 졸업생이다. 수학기간 중 Martin Green교수의 제자로 있다가 현 썬텍 CTO인 Stuart Wenham을 만났다. 그는 2010년 1월 Zayed Future Energy Prize 최고상을 수상했으며 2007년에는 타임지 선정 환경분야의 영웅(Heros of the Environment)으로 뽑혔다. 그는 또한 “세계최초의 녹색 억만장자”로 종종 거론되기도 한다. 또 그는 뉴사우스웨일스대의 방문교수로 지명된 바 있다.

투자자 
2005년 뉴욕주식시장에 상장되기 전 썬텍은 Actis Capital 또는 Goldman Sachs등의 비공개 기업투자회사의 컨소시엄을 통해 자금을 조달했다. 각 투자사가 원 투자금의 10배의 수익을 취했으므로 썬텍에 대한 컨소시엄의 비공개 기업투자는 중국에서 역대 최상의 고수익 투자로 인식되고 있다.

외부 링크 
 Suntech website

중국의 제조 기업
2001년 설립된 기업
2001년 설립된 기업
중국의 브랜드
중국의 태양 에너지
재생 에너지 기술 기업