Chinese solar cell and module manufacturer JA Solar Technology Co Ltd has announced its plans to expand the company's existing integrated production capacity by an additional 14 GW, spread in the markets of China and Vietnam to meet its strategic development needs for RMB 3.45 billion ($543 million) total investment.
According to the management, the addition of this new capacity will not only increase the supply of high efficiency products in the market, helping it increase its market share and profitability, but also provide it certainty of raw material supply.
In a stock exchange filing, JA Solar said the expansion will comprise 10 GW solar module and auxiliary production capacity at Yiwu in China's Central Zhejiang province, which is expected to cost an investment worth RMB 688 million ($108 million). It plans to establish a new project company to carry out the investment over a period of 10 months.
Another 2.5 GW will be accommodated at Vietnam's Bac Giang province in the form of wafer and slicing capacity for RMB 1.2 billion ($189 million) through the company's wholly owned subsidiary JA Solar Vietnam Company Limited. Project construction and completion is expected to take around 12.5 months.
It expects to incur RMB 370 million ($58 million) to bring online 1.3 GW high efficiency solar cell capacity at Ningjin county in Shandong province of China. Project scope will be to renovate and upgrade the existing facility, purchase production equipment and forma high-end project with an annual output of 1.3 GW which should take 7 months.
For an estimated RMB 1.19 billion ($188 million) investment, JA Solar will also invest in a 200 MW Tuquan solar PV energy storage power generation project in Inner Mongolia's Tuquan county in China through its wholly owned subsidiary Tuquan Xinsheng Solar Power Co Ltd. The subsidiary is engaged in the development and construction of solar PV power stations and sale of solar PV modules. For the 200 MW project, JA Solar said the company will purchase solar modules, inverters, energy storage systems and other related equipment. This project is likely to take 18 months to execute.
"The power station project is in line with the company's plan to continuously expand the scale of self-sustained photovoltaic power plants and in line with the company's development of photovoltaic power plants," it stated.
At the end of 2020, JA Solar's cumulative solar module production capacity had reached 23 GW, and by the end of 2021 it had been targeting to grow it to 40 GW. Its upstream silicon wafer and solar cell production capacity was about 80% of the module capacity, which should mean over 18 GW (see JA Solar Shipped 10.12 GW Solar Modules In H1/2021).
Recently, JA Solar shared with its investors that its Vietnam annual production capacity stands at 1.5 GW of silicon wafer and 3.5 GW of solar modules, with another 3.5 GW solar cell capacity still under construction and expected to come online in H2/2022. In Malaysia, it holds another 1.5 GW solar cell manufacturing capacity.
JA Solar presented at TaiyangNews Solar Innovation Conference 2021 on Learnings from using 182mm Solar Modules for Utility-Scale Applications; the recoding can be viewed here.