Chinese PV Industry Brief: Longi raises PV wafer prices, new entrant switches on 15 GW of wafer capacity

Monocrystalline module producer Longi announced on Wednesday that the prices of all its PV wafer products will be increased. The new price for M6 wafers with a size of 166 mm and thickness of 170 um increased by RMB0.30 to RMB5.09 (US$0.78) per piece, while the price of its M6 products of the same size and a thickness of 158.75 mm was raised by RMB0.20 to RMB4.99 per piece. The price of M10 wafers with a size of 188 mm and a thickness of 175 um increased by RMB 0.24 to RMB6.11 per piece. The average price increase for all three wafer types was 4.1% compared to the previous value.

Wafer manufacturer GokinSolar announced it has commissioned the first 15 GW unit of its 50 GW PV wafer manufacturing facility in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province. The company, which is a new entrant in the Chinese solar manufacturing market, is investing a total of RMB 17 billion in the factory. The second 15 GW phase of the project should be completed by the end of this year. Finally, the third 20 GW phase is expected to be launched by the end of this year and should be finalized by the end of 2022.  GokinSolar is also building a 50 GW PV ingot factory in Xining City, Qinghai Province.

Hong Kong-listed footwear company Golden Solar New Energy Technology last week announced commercial production plans for the flexible, lightweight, cast-mono, heterojuntion (HJT) solar module it has developed. The company, formerly Baofeng Modern International, cited potential applications on sunshades, gas stations, and sheds and said it plans to integrate the products with the batteries it manufactures, as part of home solar systems. The slippers and sandals maker plans to transform into a solar company after developing what it says are more than 24% efficient HJT solar cells and has already signed agreements to purchase casting silicon furnaces from GCL-Poly Energy and to lease 500 MW of HJT cell production equipment from GS-Solar (Fujian) Co Ltd. The newly-announced flexible cell plans prompted Golden Solar on Monday to tear up a proposed convertible bonds issuance which would have seen investment holding company D&A Performance inject HK$100 million (US$12.8 million) into the business to back its solar transformation.

Solar manufacturer Solargiga yesterday announced a turnaround in its fortunes with the news it expects to follow-up the RMB42.7 million net loss recorded in the first six months of last year with a RMB115-125 million (US$17.7-19.3 million) profit this time around, thanks to an increase in the company’s production capacity.

China Power has stated it is on track to have clean power plants make up more than half its generation portfolio this year, and to become the first major Chinese utility to have more renewable energy than coal-fired facilities. Publishing its first-half figures yesterday, the electric company said the RMB1.52 billion (US$234 million) revenue generated by its solar plants in the first six months of the year led to a RMB412 million ($63.5 million) profit, whereas the RMB10.3 billion ($1.59 billion) revenue posted by its coal fleet had driven profits of only RMB168 million ($25.9 million).