A plan to expand the solar panel production capacity of photovoltaic wafers at a plant in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has been published by the Chinese company Shangji Automation, Yicai Global reported.
The cost of the project is 14.8 billion yuan ($2.2 billion). The Wuxi-based silicon processing equipment manufacturer will build a new single-crystal silicon rod production line at its base in Baotu, the company said in a statement.
The project, with an annual capacity of 40 gigawatts, will be completed in two phases of 20 GW each. The first stage will be completed during 2023.
Monocrystalline silicon is the main raw material for solar panel cell silicon wafers, which is also an important source of profit for Shangji. At the end of last year, the company’s annual capacity for the production of single-crystal silicon wafers rose to about 30 GW from 12 GW at the beginning of the year.
Shangji started building the Baotu base in 2019 and has since expanded its solar wafer production by adding new production lines. Last year, the company began receiving long-term orders from battery manufacturers, and in March alone it received two long-term orders totaling 7.9 billion yuan ($1.2 billion).