Zonergy
| File:ZTE Zonergy logo.png | |
Native name | 中兴能源有限公司 |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electricity generation Palm oil production |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Guo Jun (President) |
| Owner | ZTE (major stakeholder) |
| Website | www |
Zonergy is a Chinese energy conglomerate engaged in the development of solar and biomass energy and the cultivation of palm oil.
Corporate structure and history
The company was founded in 2007 with ZTE, one of the largest Chinese telecommunications companies, as its major shareholder.[1] The idea for the company came in 2006 when the president of ZTE, Hou Weigui, had decided to diversify the telecommunications company by going into renewables. This plan was announced at a board meeting in April 2007.[2]
Affiliated companies of Zonergy listed on its website are the following: ZTE Energy Company Limited; ZTE Energy (Tianjin) Company Limited; ZTE Agribusiness Congo SPRL; PT.ZTE Agribusiness Indonesia; ZTE Energy (Inner Mongolia) Company Limited; ZTE Energy Company Limited Shenzhen Branch.[3]
Pakistani solar park
The company is active in electricity generation in Pakistan. As part of the US$46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Zonergy is developing the largest solar farm in the world, a 900 MW facility at the Bahawalpur Solar Power Park in the Cholistan Desert, slated to be completed in 2016.[4] The framework agreement for financing the project by the Export Import Bank of China had been signed in the presence of China's paramount leader Xi Jinping and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during a April, 2015 visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.[5]
Palm oil
The company grows palm oil on 30,000 hectares in Indonesia.[2] With large scale ambitions to produce palm oil over millions of hectares, the company has undertaken feasibility studies in Indonesia, Hainan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to find suitable investment locations.[2]
Proposed production in Congo
The company had long term business plans in 2008 to cultivate palm oil over 2 million hectares in the DRC. The proposed project received high level attention with the then president of ZTE, Hou Weigui, flying in 2007 soon after the founding of the company to guide the potential investment.[2] He appeared in May 2007 with then Congolese agriculture minister Nzanga Mobutu for a press conference in which future plans for a palm oil processing plant and millions of hectares of cultivation was announced.[2] A feasibility project was done at the local site with crops grown on a 10 hectare plot to explore the possibility of large scale cultivation.[6] However the plan for large scale operations was scrapped after the company concluded that logistics in Congo would be hopeless.[2] River transportation experts sent by the company found the Congo River to be a nightmare to navigate with sandbars frequently impeding transport craft and concluded that it would be too difficult to move construction equipment and machinery to the site to construct a refinery.[2]
References
- ^ "About Us". Official website of Zonergy. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g Brautigam, Deborah (2015). Will Africa Feed China?. New York: Oxford University Press.
- ^ "Global Network". Official website of Zonergy.
- ^ "Pakistan, China agree to expedite work on Bahawalpur solar project". Dawn. June 27, 2015.
- ^ "Agreements signed between Pakistan and China". Express Tribune. April 26, 2015.
- ^ "Agricultural experimental plot in Congo". Zonergy Company Limited.