Longi has raised its wafer prices for June and the China Nonferrous Metals Association has reported this week that polysilicon reached a price of RMB200-210 per kg, and that the highest price exceeded RMB230 per kg.

Solar manufacturers Longi and Zhonghuan Semiconductor have reported output at their factories in the two provinces has been reduced by earthquakes that happened on Friday night and before dawn on Saturday. Elsewhere, module maker Jolywood has announced the signing of an agreement with the city government of Taiyuan, in Shanxi province, to build a TOPCon solar cell fab with a 16 GW production capacity.

China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has allocated some $77 million for residential PV incentives. This should be enough to deploy another 1 GW of rooftop PV.

Longi is also planning to raise US$1.09 billion to support its plans to increase PV cell capacity, and Talesun has secured a solar module supply agreement from the United States.

The result, confirmed and certified by the China Institute of Metrology, amounts to the sixth conversion efficiency landmark achieved by the six-year-old, Hangzhou-based manufacturer.

China-based wind turbine manufacturer Mingyang Smart Energy wants to build a heterojunction module factory with a capacity of 5 GW. Both Longi and Tongwei have raised the prices of their wafers and cells, respectively.

Henan province immediately responded with a plan to deploy another 20 GW of solar and wind by 2025.

Based on the price agreed for the first year of the five-year contract, the total deal would be worth almost $4 billion to the $1 billion company. However, with input costs rising and the state-owned sponsor likely to expect to pay lower fees for subsequent years, the TOPCon manufacturer’s margins may not remain so fat.

The pursuit of higher conversion efficiencies is an eternal theme in the PV industry. Among all the links in the chain, cell technology is the most fundamental and decisive element. As we look beyond the established PERC technology, whether heterojunction or TOPCon will become the dominant “next-gen” solar cell among China’s manufacturing giants is emerging as a balancing act between incumbent and upstart, reports Vincent Shaw from Shanghai.

The Chint Group has also said it was China’s largest PV plant owner at the end of 2020 with more than 5.7 GW in operation.