Hanwha buys stake in U.S. solar energy firm

SEOUL, Sept. 22 (Yonhap) -- Hanwha Corp., a unit of South Korea's Hanwha Group, said Thursday that it has purchased a stake in a U.S. solar energy provider for US$8 million, the latest in a series of takeovers of overseas solar energy-related companies.
Hanwha said the purchase of the stake in OneRoof Energy will help the group venture into the U.S. solar energy market.
OneRoof Energy develops, owns, and operates solar energy generation systems for the residential market, according to Hanwha.
Early this month, Hanwha Chemical Corp., the group's chemical unit, also purchased a stake in another U.S. solar energy firm for $15 million.
The company said earlier that it will spend 1.04 trillion won ($924 million) on building a plant in Yeosu, 455 kilometers southwest of Seoul, by July 2013. The plant will have an annual output of 10,000 tons of polysilicon, which is used in solar panels and solar cells.
In August last year, Hanwha Chemical took over Solarfun Power Holdings, a Chinese solar modules manufacture, and renamed the company "Hanwha SolarOne."
Hanwha SolarOne is planning to set up a solar cell and solar cell module production line with a production capacity of 2 gigawatts in Nantong, a city in China's Jiangsu Province.
Local conglomerates such as Samsung and LG have been rushing to venture into the solar energy-related sector as part of efforts to diversify their business portfolios and secure new revenue sources.
sam@yna.co.kr
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