Chinese PV Industry Brief: Another massive glass order and a broken partnership

Module manufacturers Tongwei and Trina Solar have left the joint venture they set up with monocrystalline module maker Longi. The JV, called Lijiang Silicon Co Ltd, was established in late 2016. Longi will now take over full ownership. Tongwei and Trina Solar had held shares of 15% and 25%, respectively. The joint venture was set up for monocrystalline wafer production and had an annual manufacturing capacity of 5 GW. The six board members appointed by Tongwei and Trina have withdrawn from the board.

China's largest PV manufacturer, Jinksolar, has placed a long-term solar glass order with compatriot Flat Glass. Under the three-year contract, Flat Glass will provide the panel maker with around 338 million square meters of photovoltaic glass, enough to produce around 59 GW of solar modules. Jinko defined the deal as another important strategic cooperation in the supply chain, after a recent arrangement with Chinese manufacturer Tongwei to buy 93,000 metric tons of polysilicon.

The Shanghai Electric Guoxuan New Energy Technology Co battery manufacturing joint venture established by state-owned power company Shanghai Electric and EV battery maker Gotion High-Tech today announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding with British renewables company Pacific Green Technologies Inc. The arrangement will draw on Shanghai Guoxuan's manufacturing and London-based Pacific Green's global storage project procurement and development nous. Shanghai Guoxuan in September opened the RMB1.5 billion (US$232 million), 5 GWh annual production capacity first phase of a planned RMB3 billion, 10 GWh Nantong lithium battery industry base.

Heterojunction (HJT) equipment supplier Shenzhen S.C yesterday announced it hopes to raise up to RMB2.5 billion through a shares issue. The company intends to use RMB1 billion to build a new factory for chemical vapor deposition equipment. That factory should have the capacity to produce equipment that could manufacture 20 GW of HJT modules annually. The remaining RMB1.5 billion would be used for purposes such as the purchase of equipment or software.

Energy company China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) has announced its renewables targets for the next five years. In its proposal for the nation's 14th five-year plan, the company said it will invest in hydrogen and distributed PV. The company expects to build 10,000 hydrogen plants and 7,000 distributed solar PV stations over five years. Most of the plants will likely be located at its Chinese oil and gas fields.

GCL-Poly solar project business GCL New Energy on Friday raised a net HK$895 million (US$115 million) by placing 2 billion shares at HK$0.455 (US$0.06) per share. The stock represents 9.49% of the equity of the enlarged company with the developer to use the funds to pay down debt.

This copy was amended on 24/02/21 to indicate GCL New Energy raised cash by issuing 2 billion shares, rather than 2 million, as previously indicated.