Trina Solar: 8.5 GW High Efficiency Solar Cell Capacity

• Trina Solar will be adding 8.5 GW high efficiency 210mm solar cell production capacity at Yancheng, China
• It plans to build this this capacity for RMB 3 billion over a 24-month period in Jiangsu province
• Its subsidiary Trina Solar Technology (Yancheng) Co., Ltd. will construct the project in Yancheng Economic and Technological Development Zone

Chinese solar PV industry biggie Trina Solar Co., Ltd. will develop a high efficiency solar cell production facility in China planning with an annual production capacity of 8.5 GW for its high power Vertex product line. These production plans will cost it an investment of around RMB 3 billion ($464 million).

In late December 2020, it signed a project investment agreement with Yancheng Economic and Technological Development Zone in Jiangsu province of China through its subsidiary Trina Solar Technology (Yancheng) Co., Ltd. that will construct the project.

Trina Solar is eying a construction deadline of 24 months to build this project to produce high efficiency monocrystalline solar cells. It added that this project will further strengthen its scale and cost advantages in the field of high efficiency large size solar cells and development opportunities in the PV market while ensuring its profitability and enhancing competitiveness.

The announcement of this 8.5 GW project takes the company's total 210mm solar cell production capacity expansion plans at Yancheng to 18.5 GW, in addition to 10 GW it announced in August 2020 which it said will be achieved as 10 GW in the form of 7.6 GW of new capacity and 2.4 GW of technological upgrades (see China PV News Snippets: Trina, Tongwei, 3 Gorges).

Yancheng is one of the 3 locations along with Yiwu in Zhejiang province, and Suqian in Jiangsu where Trina Solar is building 3 Vertex Super Factories. Trina Solar has a major focus on expanding its high power Vertex solar module series: its targets 21 GW out of 50 GW cumulative solar module production capacity by the end of 2021. Total solar cell production capacity of the company by the end of 2021 is planned to reach over 26 GW. The company said it has more Vertex Super Factories in foreign countries under preparation.

In November 2020, it announced a collaboration with Tongwei to jointly produce 40,000 tons of polysilicon, and 15 GW each of annual ingot, wafer and high efficiency crystalline silicon cells, all to support its efforts to boost 210mm products (see Tongwei & Trina Solar Joint Venture For 210 Products).