China’s Trina Solar to Add USD457 Million, Double Solar Cell Plant Output
Tang Shihua
DATE:  Dec 24 2020
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
China’s Trina Solar to Add USD457 Million, Double Solar Cell Plant Output China’s Trina Solar to Add USD457 Million, Double Solar Cell Plant Output

(Yicai Global) Dec. 24 -- Chinese solar panel maker Trina Solar will invest a further CNY3 billion (USD457 million) in a large solar cell plant that it started work on in mid-year to nearly double its production. This added capacity will position the firm to predominate in China’s fast-growing photovoltaic market.

The solar panel maker’s local project-management unit inked the investment agreement with the managing committee of the Yancheng Economic Development Zone in eastern Jiangsu province. Trina Solar will invest another CNY3 billion to put up an 8.5-gigawatt production line for large solar cells, the photovoltaic developer based in Changzhou, Jiangsu, said in a statement yesterday.

One gigawatt is 1 billion watts.

The factory is slated to finish construction and start operating two years after groundbreaking, the statement added.

In August, Trina Solar announced its plan to spend CNY3.8 billion to achieve production of large, high-efficiency 10-gigawatt solar cells in Yancheng through new construction and upgrades of existing facilities.

The solar cell maker also plans a massive increase in its solar cell capacity in both China and overseas to around 26GW from a previous 12GW before the end of next year, adding 70 percent of the capacity is to be used to make high-efficiency 210-millimeter solar cells.

Use of these oversized silicon wafers can lower photovoltaic cells’ power-generation costs per unit area and the expense of constructing power stations. Such chips have gradually grown in size in recent years, and this has also opened up an avenue for upstarts to challenge the sector’s old guard. Trina Solar has now grown into one of China’s major solar cell developers by using these larger silicon substrates.

Trina Solar shares [SHA:688599] closed 0.88 percent down at CNY24.74 (USD3.77) today in a slight retreat from a historic high yesterday.

Editor: Ben Armour, Xiao Yi

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Keywords:   Capacity Expansion,Solar Cell,Large Size Wafer,Trina Solar