July-October Battery Expansion Project

    From July to October 2020, the newly built and planned high-efficiency solar cell production capacity in China will reach 137GW, which will bring huge market opportunities for technology and equipment suppliers. 182 and 210 large-size silicon wafer batteries are the general trends, but which size will become the mainstream in the future is still full of debate. High-efficiency solar cell production capacity is shifting to 182 and 210 large-size cells.

    Both the market and policies require PERC cells to further improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency. In May 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Specification Conditions for Photovoltaic Manufacturing Industry (2020 Version" (Draft for Comment), requiring that the efficiency of new monocrystalline cells be not less than 23%. Selective emitter (SE), high performance The application of conductive paste, high-resistance dense grid, advanced light trapping, high-quality silicon wafer, and MBB technology has promoted the continuous improvement of PERC cell efficiency. In August 2020, the mass production of CHINT mono-crystalline PERC double-sided cells has achieved 23.22% The average efficiency.

    Solar cells are about to enter the era of 24%+ mass production efficiency. TOPCon and heterojunction are considered to be the most promising next-generation cell technologies. 2021 will be a critical period for the competition between TOPCon and heterojunction. The process route that takes the lead in obtaining obvious advantages in mass production efficiency and cost control will dominate the future technological development direction.

    The latest progress of the domestic high-efficiency solar cell expansion project from July to October 2020 is as follows.

Canadian Solar: New construction of 10GW

    On September 28, 2020, at the 2020 Suqian Green Industry Fair, the Economic Development Zone of Suqian City announced the signing of a 10GW photovoltaic module and 10GW photovoltaic cell investment agreement with Canadian Solar Power Co., Ltd., with a total investment of 10.2 billion yuan.

Chint: newly build 5GW

    On July 18, 2020, Chint New Energy's 5GW high-efficiency battery and 5GW high-efficiency module project (phase one) was successfully held in Dafeng District, Yancheng. In this year's critical period for the overall planning of epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, the project was signed and started in only three months. After the project is put into production and is effective, the annual sales can reach more than 3 billion yuan, and all completed will reach the production capacity of 5GW batteries and 5GW modules with an annual sales of 8 billion yuan.

JA Solar: New construction of 4GW+6GW

    On August 17, 2020, JA Solar Technology Co., Ltd. issued the "Announcement on Investment and Construction of Integrated Production Capacity of Companies". According to the announcement, JA Solar Co., Ltd. will build a 4GW high-efficiency crystalline silicon cell production line with an annual capacity of 4GW in the fifth industrial park of Jinglong Group, No. 123 Xinxing Road, Ningjin County, Xingtai City, Hebei Province.

    On September 15, 2020, JA Solar announced that it plans to invest 10.391 billion yuan to expand the integrated production capacity of silicon wafers, batteries, and modules, and further improve the company's production capacity layout. In terms of batteries, JA Solar plans to invest 1.47 billion yuan to build a “3.5GW high-efficiency solar cell project with an annual output of 3.5GW” in Vietnam, and invest 1.72 billion yuan to build a new plant and related supporting facilities in Yangzhou to build a “6GW high-efficiency solar cell project with an annual production capacity of 6GW”.