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China's solar power giants Longi and JinkoSolar announced Tuesday a significant increase in their capacity to produce high-efficiency monocrystalline photovoltaic products, a technology that continues to devastate the market share of conventional multicrystalline technologies.
Longi – which produces exclusively monocrystalline products – will almost double its single module production capacity between 2018 and 2019, from 8.8 gigawatts in 2018 to 16 gigawatts in 2019. By the end of 2021, Longi, based in Xi & # 39; an, announced its intention of online capacity of 65 gigawatts of mono wafers and 30 gigawatts of mono modules.
Expected capacity of Longi, 2018-2021
Source: Longi Solar
At the same time, JinkoSolar announced a new Chinese facility with an annual capacity of 5 gigawatts of mono-wafer production, increasing the capacity of the company's only wafer from 6.5 gigawatts to 11.5 gigawatts at the time. commissioning of the plant in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The transition from the photovoltaic industry to a larger monocrystalline production capacity has been in preparation for some time. According to badysts, more and more companies are engaging in technology because of its higher efficiency and lower price in dollars per kilowatt hour compared to multicrystalline, a key benefit while the battle of costs between different clean energy technologies is intensifying.
While the global module market remains in surplus, the mono product offering is even more restricted. Faced with the growing demand for mono modules in many markets, including the world leader in China, manufacturers are sketching plans to keep up.
Xiaojing Sun, a solar energy badyst at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, said Longi's decision said the company was looking to capitalize on its "first-mover advantage" in space.
"It makes economic sense to adopt mono mode," she said. "Longi is the company that lowered the price of mono. […] They are the # 1 company responsible for becoming a mono consumer technology. "
Jinko, the world's largest manufacturer of photovoltaic systems, said its new single-wafer installation will enable it to continue meeting the growing demand for higher-efficiency products.
"The global demand for high-efficiency mono products is increasing dramatically," said CEO Kangping Chen in a statement. "Our new production facility will serve as a reference for the sector."
Spot prices for single units and cells fell from April to April 2019, despite a slight rebound in the last quarter, according to data from Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.
The growing demand for monochrome products has pushed prices up in the first quarter of 2019, but Sun said the extra capacity detailed in the Longi and Jinko ads should help ease some of this upward pressure.
WoodMac badysts expect mono prices to increase by about 18% between the first quarter of this year and the fourth quarter before falling again in the 2020s.
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