Saturday, March 8, 2008

One 30MW thin film PV project will start in July 2008

One 30MW thin film PV project will be started by Sichuan Guangliang Investment and their partners in July 2008 in Chongzhou Sichuan. The total investment is 600 million RMB.

Sunvim Photovoltaic held the ground breaking ceremony for the 60MW CIGSSe thin film project

On February 22nd 2008 Sunvim Photovoltaic held the ground breaking ceremony for the 60MW CIGSSe thin film project, Sunvim Photovoltaic plans to begin the commercial production in the third quarter 2009.

Sunvim Photovoltaic purchased the production equipment from Johanna Solar Solutions GmbH, the total equipment purchase contract value is Euro 111.75 millioin. And the equipments will arrive in the second quarter 2009.

Xin'ao Photovoltaic will begin to commercially produce thin film solar panel by the end of 2008

The total thin film PV project is 500MW, and Xin'ao Photovoltaic will complete the construction of the first phase project by the middle of May, and the production equipments will arrive before the end of June and Xin'ao Photovoltaic will begin test production before the end of September and begin commercial production by the end of 2008.

Tebian Electric Apparatus invests in 1500 ton polysilicon project

January 18th 2008 Tebian Electric Apparatus signed investment agreement with E'mei Semiconductor Factory and other partners to build 1500 ton polysilicon project. The total investment is 400 million RMB, and the investment from Tebian Electric Apparatus is 300 million RMB.

It will take about 2 years to complete the project.

And Tebian Electric Apparatus will invest in 120MW PV production project also.

Some thoughts about the polysilicon production expansion in China

PV industry is one of the most promising industry in the 21 century, and too many Chinese companies are trying to catch this golden development opportunity. While the production of polysilicon is the most lucrative sector in the PV industry chain, so there are too many polysilicon production projects in China already, and many more are planned.

It is said that the total production capacity of all the polysilicon project (existing, under construction and planned) is over 90,000 tons already, and by the end of 2010 the total production capacity of all the completed project will be much over 60,000 tons.

Most of these polysilicon companies do not have any polysilicon production experience before, and some of them obtained the improved Siemens chemical process technologies from Russia and some are developing their own production technologies, while at present the advanced polysilicon production technologies are owned by US, German and Japanese companies, and these companies are not willing to transfer their technologies to Chinese companies. The technology from Russia consumes more electricity power, and the production cost is higher. It is very hard to develop Chinese own polysilicon production technology, polysilicon production requires a complex system, and in 2007 the total polysilicon production output in China is just about 1000 tons. Some Chinese polysilicon companies claimed that they had made progress in developing polysilicon production technology, even low cost polysilicon production technology, but none of these new entries are able to produce polysilicon in volume at present, and we always hear news that some polysilicon project is delayed also.

It is hard to predict the polysilicon production output in China since we do not know when the companies are able to produce in volume and how much they can produce. I sincerely hope these Chinese companies may make breakthrough in the production technology, then the solar electricity cost will be cut down greatly, and it is the golden time for the PV industry to grow and we can adopt much cheaper solar electricity.

Leshan Electric Power Tianwei Polysilicon purchased 40m Euro polysilicon production equipments

The joint venture between Leshan Electric Power and Tianwei Baobian, Leshan Electric Power Tianwei Polysilicon, signed polysilicon production equipment purchase agreement with US polysilicon equipment company on February 17th 2008 for their 3,000 ton polysilicon project, and the total contract value is about Euro 40 million.

Leshan Electric Power Tianwei Polysilicon will get the equipments at the end of 2008.