Chinese PV Industry Brief: China hits 500 GW milestone

The National Energy Administration (NEA) says China's cumulative installed PV capacity reached 510 GW at the end of August. In the first eight months of this year, the country installed 113.16 GW of new PV systems, with 16 GW deployed in August alone. Solar power installations surged with 20.37 GW in the first two months of 2023, followed by 13.29 GW in March, 14.65 GW in April, 12.9 GW in May, and 17.2 GW in June.

FuturaSun has started building a new factory in Huaian, Jiangsu province, with an investment of CNY 5 billion ($690 million). The Italian solar cell and module manufacturer's new facility is projected to have an annual cell capacity of 10 GW and a module capacity of 2 GW, with commissioning set for March 2024. The company is also in the planning stages of a 3 GW solar module factory in Italy. It currently operates 1 GW of solar module capacity at two sites in China.

Longi says it will invest CNY 3.92 billion to expand cell capacity by 12 GW at its factory in Tongchuan, Shaanxi province. The company aims to start manufacturing on the new production lines in November 2025. The state-of-the-art facilities will produce cells based on Longi's HPBC back-contact technology. While the precise details of HPBC remain unclear, it is believed to extend p-type (positively doped silicon) IBC technology, offering a combination of the structural advantages found in PERC, TOPCon, and IBC solar technologies.