LDK Solar says it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Suqian City in eastern China to develop up to 300 megawatts of photovoltaic power projects in buildings, integration systems and plants by 2015.

The proposed projects will require a feasibility study and approval from authorities before they can go forward.

"Suqian City has unique advantages in developing PV projects, with average annual sunshine of up to 3,000 hours as well as strong support from the government for growing the solar energy industry," says Xu Huiming, the city’s vice mayor.

"Suqian City has become a leading area for the development of the solar PV industry and we hope that our partnership with LDK Solar will further increase our solar resources and promote the expansion of the local solar industry," he adds.

Analysts were skeptical that some, and maybe all, of the projects announced by LDK will be carried out. They noted a memorandum of understanding is not a contract, and similar recent announcements by LDK and several other Chinese PV players artificially pump up their stock prices.

Large solar ventures such as the one announced by LDK are also unlikely to proceed until the central Chinese government announces project subsidy levels at the end of this year, Jesse Pichel, senior solar energy research analyst at Piper Jaffray in New York, tells Recharge.

“We don’t even know if these projects can be profitable,” he says.

Chinese authorities at the national level are supporting the domestic PV application market as part of an earlier announced economic stimulus program.

LDK, based in Xinyu City in Jiangxi province, has struggled this year with quarterly financial losses on declining sales amid a global oversupply of solar products.