China Sunergy to invest US$277 million in 1GW cell manufacturing expansion

Aug 5, 2011 - Chris Whitmore - pv-tech.org

Two China Sunergy subsidiaries are investing RMB1.8 billion (US$277 million) in a new 1GW solar cell manufacturing facility in Yangzhou, China. The joint venture will concentrate on the production of China Sunergy’s newly-developed Quasar cells, with the first 500MW batch set to be delivered in the first half of 2012.

China Sunergy (HK) and China Sunergy (Nanjing) are the two subsidiaries behind the development, which will be partially funded by a RMB500 million (US$77 million) three-year general corporate loan from China Electric Equipment Group (CEEG). The remaining finance will come in the form of credit from other banks in Jiangsu Province.

The development will be located in the Yi Zheng Economic Development Zone, which has already set aside a 33-hectare plot of land for the factory. This site is ideally suited for the factory and is serviced by local drainage, water, electricity, heating and gas supplies, as well as a 110kV power station to help during construction.

"Using the current equipment and R&D capability, we're confident to reach large scale Quasar cell production efficiency of higher than 19%; and within the next two years, we are further developing new techniques with the same equipment, to reach 20%,” Jianhua Zhao, China Sunergy’s chief technology officer said. “This level of efficiency, produced at this scale, will reduce costs significantly for our customers."

Stephen Cai, China Sunergy’s CEO, added, "We believe solar industry has a very promising future. We take this golden opportunity to expand our production capacity and commercialise on our leading R&D technologies with the strong support of the Yi Zheng Development Zone. We are confident that this 1GW production capabilities and highly efficient Quasar cells will provide us the scale and technological edge to be better positioned for industry growth and to become an industry leading player."

With an efficiency of up to 18.85%, China Sunergy’s Quasar cells are already among the market leaders and the company envisages that Yangzhou will help raise this number to 20% within two years.