China’s CNBM International Corporation is mulling the challenging of the decision of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada to cut the feed-in tariff for large solar power plants in an international arbitration court, CNBM International Corporation Board Chairman Jinsong Zhang reported.
The company said that the payback period of CNBM’s solar power plants sharply increased over the decision of the parliament.
“The payback period of our plants would exceed 15 years or the entire term when the feed-in tariff will be in effect, which is unacceptable for us. Thus, there is a threat that these facilities become bankrupt”, he said.
Zhang said that CNBM had several options for the solar power plants in Ukraine. The company does not want to specify them as yet.
CNBM said that their solar power plants were built observing Ukrainian legislation and without lobbying for them.
“Our company took part in building some facilities as a supplier of equipment. When we bought the plants we conducted audits with participation of independent international companies. They showed that building of the plants, including the allocation of land parcels, connection to power grids, was in line with Ukrainian legislation”, Zhang said.
The company said that 22 more companies in Ukraine continued having the feed-in tariff as the company had.
“There were no preferences in setting the tariff. Now over 200 companies in alternative energy are operating in Ukraine. All of them have the tariff, land parcels and all are connected to power lines. Is this also thanks to lobbying?” he said.
He believes that the decision of the Ukrainian parliament is discriminative towards Chinese investment. It represents practice of selective legislation in Ukraine, he said.
“This gives a negative signal to the whole investment society”, he said. (Interfax/Business World Magazine)