As solar module makers move towards large sized wafer based products, which will lead to increased demand for such products in the future, China headquartered solar PV production equipment maker Shuangliang Eco-Energy Co., Ltd. has announced its plans to venture into solar wafer and ingot production through a new company called Shuangliang Silicon Materials (Baotou) Co., Ltd.
The plan, as per the agreement entered with the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is to set up monocrystalline silicon wafer and ingot production lines with an annual capacity of 20 GW each under phase I at Baotou Rare Earth High-tech Zone. It did not specify wafer sizes it plans to produce here.
Initial production under phase I is expected to start from December 2022, and fully ramped up by 2023. This phase is expected to cost the company RMB 7 billion, and the management sees this 40 GW bringing it RMB 10.8 billion revenues annually once fully ramped up.
Under phase 2, whose roadmap was not revealed in the stock exchange filing by the company, it will raise the production lines capacity by an additional 20 GW each for wafers and ingots, reaching a total of 40 GW for each.
In our 1st report on 500W+ Solar Modules launched in 2020, TaiyangNews covered changes in wafer, cell and module manufacturing to assemble very large scale panels. The report can be downloaded for free here.
In January 2021, Shuangliang secured contracts to supply heat exchanger equipment for phase I of Tongwei's 40,000 MT silicon project, and reduction furnace equipment for Daqo New Energy for an annual output of 15 GW solar modules (see China PV News Snippets: Jinjing, Shuangliang, Huaneng, Chint).