Longi to invest $300 million in 5 GW module plant in China

The planned facility in Chuzhou, Anhui province, will produce monocrystalline PV modules. Construction of the new factory is expected to take nearly two and a half years to complete, according to a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange.

A subsidiary of the group — which changed the name of its PV cell and module business from Lerri Solar to Longi early last year, around the same time that Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) named it a Tier-1 solar panel supplier  — signed the agreement with the local authorities in Chuzhou. The agreement is still subject to internal review, it said.

A spokesperson for Longi tells pv magazine, “The products will shipped to the projects both in China and Overseas countries. The facility is expected to … [relieve] the supply tension of mono modules.”

Last March, Longi agreed to collaborate with Sichuan Yonxiang, a unit of Tongwei, to jointly build a new polysilicon production plant in China’s Sichuan province. In September, the group’s module subsidiary, Longi Solar, posted a net profit of CNY 1.236 billion for the first half of 2017, up nearly 44% on the year.

In the fourth quarter of 2017, it was revealed that Longi was among several companies that had expressed interest in acquiring bankrupt PV cell and module producer Suniva.

And in December, Indian media reports indicated that the group had started planning the construction of a 500 MW PV cell and module plant in India. Reportedly, the facility will be completed at some point next year in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

The article was updated on January 9, 2018 to include comment from Longi.