Chinese PV Industry Brief: New solar glass factory in Jiangsu, Longi maintains wafer prices unchanged

Chinese engineering company Triumph Group, a unit of state-owned conglomerate China National Building Materials Group Corporation, has signed an agreement with the government of Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, to build a solar glass factory at the Grand Canal Suqian Port Industrial Park. The company said in a statement it wants to invest RMB 11 million (around $1.71 billion) in the new manufacturing facility and that it expects to begin construction “soon.” The Triumph Group is also the controlling shareholder of state-owned manufacturer Luoyang Glass.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China’s Shaanxi Province released a new draft regulation for the deployment of PV in 2021.  According to the new provisions, all future systems will have to integrate some battery storage to stabilize power injection. The storage system will have to be able to store and provide electricity for at least two hours and will have to feature a 10-year lifecycle with 5,000 charge and discharge cycles.

Monocrystalline module producer Longi has held its wafer prices for July. The price for p-type M6 products, measuring 166/223mm and with a thickness of 175um, is RMB4.89 (US$0.75) per piece and the price for p-type G1 (158.75/223mm and 175um) is RMB4.79 per piece. P-type M10 products, measuring 182/247mm and with a thickness of 175um will cost RMB5.87. All prices remained unchanged from the previous release.

A light-on-detail statement published on the website of the Africa Solar Industry Association on Tuesday claimed JinkoSolar will supply 2.6 MW of its panels to SGCC – which pv magazine believes to be the State Grid Corp of China – after the state-owned energy company won a second stage bid to install seven mini grids in towns and villages in Ethiopia under the World Bank-funded Lighting Africa program. The statement said Jinko had supplied 1 MW of products to SGCC for the first stage of the program, with the sites owned by the Ethiopian Power Distribution Company. The statement claimed the first round of sites, which were installed by April, were the “first off-grid PV project in East Africa” and the “first demonstration project of the World Bank’s Lighting Africa program.” However, the Lighting Africa website states the initiative was launched in Kenya in 2009.