China’s Jinglong Group and Australia’s Solar Energy Development Company have signed an agreement to jointly produce solar cells.
The Hebei Jinglong Group mainly manufactures large-diameter mono-crystalline silicon rods and wafers, semiconductor elements and mono-crystalline silicon for integrated circuits.
The group is said to be the world’s largest solar energy mono-crystalline silicon production base and China’s largest silicon wafer processing center.
The first-phase of the project is to build a 25 megawatt production line for solar cells at an investment of 60 million yuan (US$7.4 million) to be split between the parties. The line will be put into production before the end of this year.
A total investment of 750 million yuan over the course of the project will bring production up to 175 megawatts annually.