Yingli Green (YGE) Offers 38MW Solar Panels To Rural Project

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE:YGE) recently announced that it has agreed to supply 38.4 megawatts (MW) of solar panels to a rural photovoltaic (PV) poverty alleviation project in China. Per the deal, the project will utilize over 140,000 Yingli Solar panels and also adopt axis tracking system that captures more sunlight, for higher power generation.

Details of the Project

Notably, the project will utilize Yingli Green's patented Panda Bifacial panels, multi-crystalline 12 bus-bars panels and multi-crystalline black silicon panels.It includes 128 rural distributed PV poverty alleviation plants, each having a capacity to generate 300 Kilowatts (kW), which will light up 128 low-income villages.

The project is expected to come online by the fourth quarter of 2017. Once completed, it is anticipated to benefit over 10,000 low-income villagers in Zhangbei County over the next two decades.

Yingli Green’s Shipments in China

Yingli Green has been witnessing soaring demand in China. The country accounted for approximately 86.5% of the company’s total PV module shipments in the second quarter of 2017, reflecting a massive 308% sequential improvement in shipments during the quarter. Additionally, it benefited during the second quarter owing to increased customer base as a result of high PV module shipments in China.

Looking ahead, the company expects the Top Runner program, PV Poverty Alleviation projects and distributed generation projects in China to be the major driving forces for its PV module shipments in China in the second half of 2017. Notably, the company has raised expectation for 2017 shipments to the range of 2.5-2.8 gigawatts (GW) from the earlier range of 2.1-2.2 GW. Significant increase of PV module shipments in China is expected to primarily drive this.

We believe that the steady flow of contracts from China, like the aforementioned one, will aid the company to achieve its planned guidance for the year along with expanding its customer base in the country.

Solar is the Future

Solar energy has emerged as one of the most popular alternative energy sources owing to its easy availability and declining price of solar panels. Per a report from GTM Research, the global solar market will hit 85 GW in 2017, nearly doubling the installed capacity of 2014.

Naturally, to make most of the current scenario, solar companies like Yingli Green and its peers – Canadian Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ) and JinkoSolar Holding Company Limited (NYSE:JKS) – are making substantial investments in solar power projects to tap the benefits of the solar industry.

In a bid to expand its solar energy base, Canadian Solar recently entered into a joint-venture (JV) with Menora Mivtachim to invest in solar power projects in Israel.Both companies will invest $60 million each in these projects. (Read more: Canadian Solar-Menora Mivtachim JV Invests in Solar Projects)

JinkoSolar Holding recently took steps to initiate operations in Mongolia, by supplying 12.7 MW of PV modules to Hitachi Systems. (Read more:JinkoSolar Enters Mongolian Market with 12.7MW Solar modules)

Price Movement

Shares of Yingli Green have underperformed the industry in the last three months. The company’s shares lost 6.4%, compared with the industry’s gain of 10.4%.

The company has been witnessing increasing operating expenses, which in turn have been weighing down on its bottom line, leading to its deterioration. This may have caused Yingli Green to underperform its broader industry.

Zacks Rank & Better Pick

Yingli Green carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked stock from the same space is First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) whichcarriesa Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

First Solar has delivered an average surprise of 537.39% in the trailing four quarters. The company’s current year Zacks Consensus Estimate has improved 21.1% in last 30 days.

Zacks' Hidden Trades

While we share many recommendations and ideas with the public, certain moves are hidden from everyone but selected members of our portfolio services. Would you like to peek behind the curtain today and view them?

Starting now, for the next month, I invite you to follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time from value to momentum...from stocks under $10 to ETF to option movers...from insider trades to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises (we've called them with 80%+ accuracy). You can even look inside portfolios so exclusive that they are normally closed to new investors.

Click here for Zacks' secret trade>>