Jinko to add another 5 GW of mono wafer capacity in Leshan

Chinese solar giant JinkoSolar has become the latest manufacturer to up the ante in terms of the scramble to ramp up production capacity.

Despite recent figures showing an hoped-for, end-of-year rally in Chinese solar project deployment has thus far failed to materialize, overseas orders continue to boom.

Jinko, like its manufacturing peers, is hurrying to take advantage and today announced plans to roll out a further 5 GW of annual mono wafer capacity at its new production facility in Leshan, Sichuan province.

With the wafer fab only announced in April, today’s update reveals it has smashed the expectations of its owner in terms of the time required to hit full production.

Accelerated development

In April, we reported Jinko expected to complete construction of the 5 GW capacity wafer facility during the last quarter and would begin production during the current three-month window. The fab was conceived as part of a drive for Jinko to have 11 GW of mono wafer annual production capacity by the end of the year.

In fact, Jinko announced, what is now being described as ‘Phase I’ of the factory began production in the second quarter of the year and has already reached full output. That has driven the company to opt to add a further 5 GW of output capacity, which Jinko says will hit full production in the second quarter of next year.

Once that milestone is achieved, JinkoSolar will boast 18 GW of mono wafer capacity, up from its current 13 GW.

The global solar boom was illustrated in April, when we reported the Leshan facility had been planned in part because its owner had banked 10.7 GW of high-efficiency mono module orders worldwide, including big business in Vietnam, Mexico and Spain.