Along with its earnings announcement this morning, ReneSola (SOL) also announced the acquisition of JC Solar for RMB 118 million.  JC Solar is an established solar cell and module manufacturer with about 300 employees and annual cell production capacity of 25MW and annual module production capacity of 50MW.  It posted an unaudited net profit of RMB 69 million last year.  The move is a first step towards downstream integration for ReneSola and gets the company closer to a full integrated solar company.  The CEO commented:

“I am also very pleased to announce that we recently took the initial steps towards downstream integration in the PV market through the acquisition of JC Solar, a China-based cell and module manufacturer with respective annualized manufacturing capacities of 25 MW and 50 MW. Our plan is to maintain annual cell manufacturing capacity at 25 MW and to increase annual module manufacturing capacity to 100 MW during 2009. With our expected commencement of in-house polysilicon production in July, ReneSola will become an early mover as a fully integrated solar company. Building a diversified global customer base remains one of our key strategies and JC Solar possesses the essential technological certificates necessary for module sales in Europe and the United States. We expect to quickly gain market share across these markets by capitalizing on ReneSola’s cost competitiveness and JC Solar’s cell and module manufacturing and distribution capabilities.