China Solar PV News Snippets: JinkoSolar Tops H1 2024 Shipment Numbers & More

JinkoSolar achieves record shipments in H1 2024

JinkoSolar has announced that it led the global solar market with record shipments of 44 to 46 GW in H1 2024. This was significantly higher than competitors Trina and JA Solar, who shipped around 35 GW each. The company’s shipments were up 46% to 49% year-over-year, driven by strong sales of the Tiger Neo series, the company said. With this achievement, JinkoSolar's market share accounts for about 19% to 20%. The company also announced a major expansion in Saudi Arabia, in partnership with PIF and VI, to build a factory aiming to produce 10 GW of n-type TOPCon cells and modules annually by 2026 (see China Solar PV News Snippets).

Tongwei’s Global Innovation R&D Center launches half-slice pilot line

Tongwei Solar has announced that its Global Innovation R&D Center has produced the 1^st half-slice from its pilot line. The company said that the half-slice utilizes center semi-bar slicing technology, offering advantages such as thinness, high efficiency, and low loss. Future developments will include edge slice/head bar slicing processes. Tongwei said further that the center has established integrated workshops for HJT copper interconnection and perovskite cells, a half-slice pilot line, as well as R&D lines for TBC cells and modules.

Maxwell achieves 31.5% steady-state efficiency for tandem cells

Solar cell production equipment manufacturer Suzhou Maxwell Technologies, in collaboration with Nanchang University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Henan Normal University, has published a paper titled Strained heterojunction enables high-performance, fully textured perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells in the scientific journal Joule. The paper details an innovative strain regulation strategy, using a vacuum deposition method to form a 3D/3D perovskite heterojunction (HJT) on a fully textured silicon substrate. This structure promotes preferred crystal growth, reduces recombination from interface defects, and facilitates charge extraction. As a result, the fully textured perovskite/silicon tandem cell achieved a steady-state certified efficiency of 31.5% and maintained over 95% of its initial efficiency after 800 hours of continuous operation. The company says these results were achieved using its complete Perovskite/HJT tandem cell R&D platform and related equipment.

In February 2024, Maxwell broke ground on its Perovskite/HJT tandem cell facility, located in Wujiang District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province (see China Solar PV News Snippets).

DMEGC to inject RMB 799M into subsidiary

DMEGC Solar has announced that it will inject RMB 799 million ($108.57 million) into its wholly-owned subsidiary Dongshang New Energy. This capital injection would increase the latter's registered capital from RMB 1 million ($0.14 million) to RMB 800 million ($109.97 million). Dongshang New Energy invests and constructs PV power projects and this capital injection will help its wholly-owned subsidiary Lianyungang Ganyu Dongshang Photovoltaic Power Generation Co., Ltd., meet the needs for PV project construction.

Akcome subsidiary initiates bankruptcy restructuring

Solar cell and module manufacturer Akcome has announced that its subsidiary, Zhejiang Akcome Photovoltaic Electric Technology Co., Ltd. (Zhejiang Akcome), is undergoing bankruptcy restructuring. The creditor, Jiangyin Kangda Packaging Co., Ltd., filed for the restructuring at the Changxing County People’s Court, claiming Zhejiang Akcome was unable to pay its debts. As of April 30, 2024, Zhejiang Akcome had total assets of RMB 2.513 billion ($347 million) and total liabilities of RMB 1.562 billion ($215.07 million), resulting in a net asset value of RMB 951 million ($130.91 million).

CNC Group’s 4 GW solar module procurement open for bids

China National Coal Group Corporation has opened bids for the 1^st batch of solar module procurement for 2024, consisting of 2 lots. The 1^st lot is for the procurement of 3 GW of n-type TOPCon monocrystalline silicon solar modules, while the 2^nd lot is for 1 GW of p-type monocrystalline silicon modules. According to the bid results, 23 companies participated in the n-type TOPCon module bidding, with bid prices ranging from RMB 0.7134/W ($0.0982) to RMB 0.744/W ($0.1024), and the average price being RMB 0.773/W ($0.1064). For the p-type monocrystalline silicon modules, 20 companies participated, with bid prices ranging from RMB 0.7104/W ($0.0978) to RMB 0.8/W ($0.1101), and the average price being RMB 0.742/W ($0.1021).