Standard Chartered Private Equity Limited announced on Friday (25th, Dec) that it has finished its first investment in China’s renewable energy field of 23.3 million U.S. dollars, reported Xinhua.

The investment went to solar water heater maker Sangle Solar Energy Co., Ltd., who was working to float its initial public offering on Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Zhu Wei, managing director of Standard Chartered Private Equity for Greater China, said that China’s solar water heater sector will see fast development in the coming years thanks to government subsidies and the untapped market in rural areas.

Based in East China’s Shandong province, Sangle Solar now has more than 10,000 distributors and five production bases across the country.

It’s not clear how much shares Standard Chartered Private Equity will take at Sangle Solar via the capital injection.

Shandong Provincial Academy of Science, backed by the local government, would remain a major shareholder in Sangle, said the British Bank.

It’s predicted that Sangle Solar will produce 10 million solar water heaters by 2015, up from estimated 1.2 million units in 2009.

Source : Konaxis