wafers

Manufacturer Golden Glass is planning to set up a 1.2 GW heterojunction cell and module production line in Jiangsu province and Trina Solar and China Petrochemical Corp will work to reduce the carbon footprint of the latter’s gasoline stations.

U.S. thin-film manufacturer First Solar and Bill Gates-owned Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) are among the investors in the new company, which is called CubicPV and is expected to develop multi-junction perovskite solar cells with efficiencies of around 30%.

Triumph Group is planning to build a $1.71 billion PV glass factory in Suqian City, Jiangsu Province. Longi has maintained unchanged the prices of its wafers for July.

U.S. business 1366 Technologies is looking for Indian module manufacturing partners as it plans to bring its ‘direct wafer’ production technique to the country. The company uses molten silicon to form wafers rather than sawing ingots, thus eliminating dust waste and speeding up the process.

Furthermore, Aikosolar is seeking funds to build two solar cell factories totaling 16.5 GW, and China Huaneng Group (CHN) wants to deploy a 2 GW plant including agrivoltaics, floating PV and solar facilities built on fishponds.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has allocated RMB500 million (US$78.1 million) for the incentive scheme for residential PV in 2021. Chinese electronic engineer TBEA is set to raise its controlling stake in polysilicon manufacturer Xinte Energy as it attempts to fund a planned 100,000-tons-per-year fab in Inner Mongolia.

Market analyst Bernreuter Research reports that the price of the raw material rose by around 160% from US$11/kg at the beginning of the year to $28.50/kg currently. However, following the SNEC trade show in Shanghai last week, the price rose by only 1%, which suggests a turnaround or a price stabilization may be expected.

The technology company and inverter maker has created a new unit to operate in the renewables and e-mobility sectors. Elsewhere, China’s largest e-commerce company, JD.Com, has signed an agreement with the world’s biggest wind company, GoldWind, to establish a renewables joint venture.

GCL-Poly will provide JA Solar with 148,000 metric tons of polysilicon over the next five years. Tongwei produced its first 210mm PERC cell at its Jintang factory.

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.