China's lightweight building materials manufacturer, China National Building Material Company (CNBM) is expanding its cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin film solar module production capacity across China to an output volume of more than 1 GW. It has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the German thin film production equipment maker Singulus Technologies to supply the equipment.
Both partners have expanded their existing, long-term cooperation to include the development and delivery of production systems for cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film solar technology through the MoU signed during SNEC 2021. It includes production systems for coating and thermal treatment of solar modules.
The MoU follows an agreement Singulus signed with its customer of many years CNBM in May 2021 for the development of next generation of vacuum coating systems to be used for the production of CdTe thin film solar modules. They aim to further reduce production costs, improve cell performance and increase production output.
Back then Singulus announced, "In addition to the previous four CIGS locations, CNBM is planning a number of additional production locations for CdTe solar modules with an output volume of more than 1 GW."
In April 2020, a CNBM group company Kaisheng Technology Group was reported to be building CdTe thin film solar CdTe fab in China's Qingdao with 600 MW capacity (see China's CNBM To Build CdTe Thin-Film Module Fab).
"Our customer CNBM invests in factories for production based on both CIGS and CdTe technology. We are very pleased that we are now an important partner in setting up factories for the production of CdTe solar modules," said Singulus CEO Dr.-Ing Stefan Rinck.
In January 2020, CNBM placed an order for CIGS module production technology equipment with Singulus worth €50 million (see CNBM Places CIGS Equipment Order With Singulus).