China PV News Snippets

TrinaTracker completes 55 MW PV installation in Kenya; DR Laser releases investors activity report; LONGi's brand value at RMB 50.3 bn; CSG Holding park begins; Tongwei cell prices rise; Dian Tou to invest in solar project; Guosheng New Energy manufacturing fab begins construction.

TrinaTracker completes adding 55 MW to its Kenya project: Tracking solutions provider TrinaTracker announced that it has completed a 55 MW PV installation in Eldoret, Kenya. Owned by Alten Energías Renovables and built by Voltalia in partnership with TrinaTracker, this installation includes 103,936 ultra-high-power modules mounted on 928 single-axe Vanguard 2P trackers. The trackers come with a robust design and an innovative multi-drive system that ensures installation stability during the rainy season, which especially comes with strong winds. This project, which has generated over 70 local jobs, will produce about 123 MW/h of clean energy every year, thus meeting the electricity needs of 22,000 homes. Meanwhile listen to TrinaTracker speak about how SuperTrack Smart Control Monitoring, launched in May 2022, is aimed at improving energy yield of projects by up to 8% (see Oscar Aira, Trina Tracker: Increasing Energy Yield by up to 8%)

DR Laser sees strong PERC cells demand: Chinese laser integrator DR Laser made some announcements from the investor relations activity report. Here are the details:

In the first half of 2022:

• The company has further increased the market share of PERC cell equipment
• In the TOPCon cell process, a new laser boron doping test equipment has been delivered to customers, which is progressing smoothly, and has achieved a steady increase in efficiency of 0.2%
• In the HJT cell process, the company's LIA laser repair technology has already obtained customer mass production orders in the early stage
• In the IBC cell process, the company's laser grooving technology has obtained mass production orders
• The company has completed the delivery of mass production orders for perovskite cells.

In the second half of 2022:

• The new demand for PERC cells will be about 60 GW
• For laser equipment used in BC cell lines, the company will have leading technology and an exclusive market share
• For HJT cell, the original European customers will have new capacity needs
• Laser transfer equipment to have GW-level orders
• Laser doping equipment used in TOPCon expected to have orders

LONGi's brand value pegged at RMB 50.3 billion: Chinese vertically integrated solar PV company LONGi said that it has been ranked 9th among the national energy and chemical manufacturing enterprise brands in the recently released 2022 China Brand Value Evaluation Information list. The brand strength of LONGi has been pegged at 890 and the brand value at RMB 50.3 billion ($7.2 billion). This list has been jointly released by the China Brand Building Promotion Association, China Assets Appraisal Association, Xinhua News Agency National Brand Engineering Office and other units. In May this year, LONGi had established a silicon material company in Ordos (see China PV News Snippets)

CSG Holding begins construction of solar glass lines: The groundbreaking ceremony of the Beihai Photovoltaic Green Energy Industrial Park of solar PV manufacturer CSG Holding was held recently, local media reported. The project will be constructed in phases. The first phase will build two 1200t/d one-kiln five-line photovoltaic rolled glass production lines and supporting photovoltaic glass processing production lines. The first phase will also see supporting R&D centers, 2.5 GW photovoltaic module production line, one 700t/d one-kiln two-line electronic glass and photoelectric glass production line come up. The estimated investment in this phase will be about RMB 5 billion ($0.72 billion).

Tongwei Solar releases latest solar cell prices: Integrated solar PV manufacturer from China, Tongwei Solar, has announced its latest solar cell prices, and there is an increase in the prices. Here are the latest quotations:

• Single crystal PERC 166 cell is now at RMB 1.29/W ($0.19/W), up by RMB 0.01/W (0.0014/W)
• Single crystal PERC 182 cell is now at RMB 1.31/W ($0.19/W), up by RMB 0.01 /W (0.0014/W)
• Single crystal PERC 210 cell is now at RMB 1.30/W ($0.19/W), up by RMB 0.02/W ($0.0029/W)

Tongwei had increased its solar cell prices in July as well (see China PV News Snippets)

Inner Mongolia Dian Tou to invest in solar projects: Electricity company Inner Mongolia Dian Tou Energy plans to invest in the construction of wind and solar power projects, local media reported. The total investment of the projects will be about RMB 2.2 billion ($2.2 billion). Out of this, the company plans to invest RMB 13.05 million ($1.87 million) in the construction of a 3.1 MW distributed PV power generation project.

Guosheng New Energy builds new HJT manufacturing facility: The 2 GW HJT solar cell manufacturing facility of Hebei Guosheng New Energy begins construction. With an investment of RMB 1 billion ($0.14 billion), this facility is spread across 60,000 square meters of rented space in a standardized plant in the Yangyuan County Economic Development Zone. Once the facility is put into operation, an annual sales revenue of RMB 4 billion ($0.57 billion) is expected. The facility is said to play an important role in facilitating the diversified development of the new energy industry in Yangyuan.