Chinese vertically integrated solar PV manufacturer LONGi Green Energy Technology continues to expand its production capacity with the newest announcement on March 14, 2022 stating it will add 20 GW monocrystalline silicon wafer, 30 GW high efficiency monocrystalline cell and 5 GW high efficiency solar module capacity in Inner Mongolia.
According to the company's announcement, all of this capacity will require RMB 19.5 billion investment and will come up in Inner Mongolia's Ordos City that's a coal miner's delight and was infamous once as a ghost town for its abandoned buildings.
The 20 GW silicon wafer project is estimated to cost RMB 7.6 billion to construct and come online, while the 30 GW high efficiency monocrystalline silicon cell project is expected to incur an investment of RMB 10.3 billion. LONGi estimates an investment of RMB 1.6 billion on the 5 GW high efficiency module project.
Under an Investment Corporation Agreement signed with local authorities, a LONGi subsidiary will establish a project holding subsidiary for each of the 3 manufacturing projects. The company said it will convene a board meeting to analyze the feasibility of the project and once all cleared, production time will not exceed 24 months.
LONGi says the expansion is in line with its future production planning that's conducive to its full use of PV technology, enabling it to seize development opportunities in the PV market. It will further increase the company's production capacity and improve competitiveness.
Back in November 2021, Reuters reported LONGi's monocrystalline silicon wafer production capacity as 85 GW and solar module production capacity as 50 GW. It quoted LONGi Green's President Li Zhenguo as saying that the firm is actively studying the market to build manufacturing plants beyond China, with possible locations being India, Saudi Arabia and the US as it is expensive to ship its China made products to the US owing to the import tariffs.