Trina Solar's leap towards module size standardization; Sineng's capital raise for a new inverter & storage fab; Crown Advanced Material's plans for Vietnam expansion; Turpan's 1st PV manufacturing facility starts operations; Tongwei Group signs agreement for industrial silicon facility; China's latest report on grid-connected new energy consumption.
Trina Solar's 'golden size' module offerings: Chinese solar module manufacturer Trina Solar, in a step towards universal adoption of 210 mm modules, is now offering small, medium and large-format "golden size" modules – Vertex 670W and Vertex N 700W for the utility-scale segment, Vertex N 605W module for commercial and industrial (C&I), Vertex S and S+ for the residential segment. In July, a consortium of 9 solar module manufacturers, including Trina, agreed on a standard size of modules (golden size) in order to reduce supply difficulties in the industrial chain, wastage of materials and challenges in the application of solar modules of different sizes (see Standardized PV Panel Size Gets Unanimous Votes).
Sineng Electric plans to raise RMB 2.55 billion: China headquartered global solar PV inverter supplier Sineng Electric has announced that it plans to raise RMB 2.55 billion ($355 million). The net raised funds, after deducting the issuance expenses, will be used for the construction of a facility with annual production of 25 GW string photovoltaic (PV) inverters, 10 GW energy storage converters, 10 GWh energy storage system (ESS) integration and 200,000 integrated solar-storage systems. The construction period of the string inverter facility is expected to be 3 years. At completion, the company expects it will add an annual production capacity of 15 GW for distributed PV inverters and 10 GW for large string photovoltaic inverters.
Crown Advanced Material to increase capital in subsidiary: Solar backsheet supplier Crown Advanced Material announced that it plans to increase capital in its Vietnamese subsidiary by RMB 144 million ($20 million) with its own funds (the final amount is subject to approval from Jiangxi Provincial Department of Commerce, Provincial Development and Reform Commission and other departments). The company said that this capital increase is based on the expansion of the company's solar cell packaging film products overseas. The entire raise will be invested in the Vietnamese subsidiary's solar cell packaging film facility, improving its asset structure, increase liquidity, the scale of production and sales & profitability.
Haitai Solar's 3 GW PV manufacturing facility starts operations in Turpan: Phase 1 of Turpan's 1st PV module manufacturing facility, invested and built by Haitai Solar, has officially commenced operations. Being constructed in 3 phases at a cost of RMB 600 million ($83 million), the facility covers an area of 191 mu. In the 1st phase, the company invested RMB 200 million ($27.9 million) to build a high-efficiency solar PV module production line with an annual production capacity of 1 GW. Once into production, the facility is expected to provide 200 jobs and realize an annual output value of about RMB 1.5 billion.
Tongwei Group formally signs in industrial silicon facility: Guangyuan Municipal People's Government, Cangxi County People's Government and Tongwei Group signed an agreement for a 400,000-ton industrial silicon facility at the Tongwei International Center. At a recent TaiyangNews conference, Tongwei showed that the vertically integrated company plans to increase its polysilicon capacity to 350,000 tons by end of 2023, and up to 1,000,000 tons by 2026 (see From 14 to 80 GW Solar Module Capacity In About 1 Year).
China report on grid-connected consumption of new energy: The June 2023 grid-connected consumption report for China's new energy has been released. According to the report, the utilization rate of PV power generation reached 98.7% in June, and that of wind power reached 97.7%. The utilization rate of PV has hit 100% in Beijing, Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Hainan. It is worth noting that Tibet's light abandonment rate in June was 22.8%, leading to a PV utilization rate of only 77.2%, which was 75.5% from January to June.