India's Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has contracted Chinese solar cell equipment supplier Suzhou Maxwell Technology to deliver 8 complete lines of heterojunction (HJT) cell production equipment representing a total capacity of 4.8 GW.
Each of the 8 lines will have a manufacturing capacity of 600 MW according to the Letter of Commitment signed, Maxwell stated in a stock exchange announcement. The company has not revealed the purchase price of the RIL contract terming it a commercial secret as disclosure may lead to 'inappropriate competition'.
However, the Chinese supplier did share that the total purchase amount exceeds 50% of the company's audited operating income in 2021, but not 100%. Maxwell believes the order will have a positive impact on its operating performance in the future. It did not disclose delivery and installation timeline.
The Chinese company recently announced 25.62% power conversion efficiency for its silicon HJT cell with reduced amount of indium and use of silver coated copper grid lines (see 25.62% Efficiency For Silicon HJT Cell).
Maxwell has signed the letter of commitment through its wholly owned subsidiary Maxwell Technology PTE Ltd of Singapore.
Headed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, RIL emerged as a formidable player in India's solar market in June 2021 when it revealed plans to build integrated solar PV module, energy storage, electrolyzer and fuel cell fabs as 4 gigafactories in the country. It followed up by taking over Norway's HJT cell & module maker, and polysilicon producer REC Group (see India's Mukesh Ambani Goes Solar Shopping).
REC Group already has a 600 MW cell/module line based on HJT technology in Singapore. It had previously placed an order for 400 MW HJT cell line equipment for its Singapore location (see China PV News Snippets).
RIL has also announced plans to use Germany's silicon solar wafer producer NexWafe technology in India (see Strategic Investment For German Wafer Producer).
HJT technology is fast emerging as a competition for PERC, the current workhorse for the global PV industry, which was discussed at length by participants during TaiyangNews Virtual Conference on High Efficiency Solar Technologies in December 2021 (to view the presentations check our YouTube channel). Specifically, day 2 of the conference focused on HJT technology (see Day 2: High Efficiency Solar Technologies).