China Renewable Energy Industry Report: Sept. 15

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Sept. 15 – This is a regular series of relevant industry news from around China.

Air Products to supply gases to Chinese photovoltaic maker
U.S. industrial gases producer Air Products said on Sept. 5 it had sealed a gases supply agreement with China’s photovoltaics maker Hunan Gongchuang Photovoltaic Science & Technology Co Ltd.

Under the deal, Air Products will supply bulk and specialty gases to Hunan Gongchuang’s new silicon thin-film photovoltaic manufacturing facility in Hengyang City in China’s Hunan Province.

The Chinese company is building a 40 megawatt plant utilizing Oerlikon Solar’s Micromorph turnkey production line, known as the FAB 1200. The new facility is expected to commence production by the end of this year.

Oerlikon Solar is part of Swiss industrial engineering company OC Oerlikon.

Yingli Green, Amtech team up for high-efficiency photovoltaic cells
Solar firms Yingli Green Energy Holding Co and Amtech Systems Inc have teamed up with the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) to develop high-efficiency photovoltaic cells and modules.

The project is an extension to the Panda project started in 2009. So far the partners have achieved a cell efficiency of 19.7 percent and a module efficiency of 17.6 percent in the laboratory with the N-type metal wrap through (MWT) photovoltaic cell and module technology, they said in a statement.

The N-MWT PV cell technology is expected to reduce up to 40 percent of the metal coverage comparing to standard crystalline cells, resulting in some 1.5 percent relative cell efficiency gain. The technology also has huge cost reduction potential, ECN has shown.

Canadian AMG Bioenergy sets up Chinese unit
Canadian biofuel firm AMG Bioenergy Resources Holdings Ltd (CVE:ABG) said on Sept. 8 it had formed a wholly owned unit for the acquisition of jatropha and eucalyptus plantations in China.

AMG Bioenergy Plantations Co Ltd will facilitate an earlier announced acquisition of a 133-hectare (329 acres) jatropha plantation and 201-hectare eucalyptus plantation and the related land use rights.

The company announced the transaction in January but the formation of the unit took longer than expected.

AMG Bioenergy now expects to close a definitive agreement for the land on October 21.

Sunsi Energies wraps up expansion of Chinese TCS factory
U.S. trichlorosilane (TCS) manufacturer Sunsi Energies Inc earlier this month said it had completed an expansion project at its Wendeng plant in the Chinese city of Weihai, lifting its capacity by 50 percent to 30,000 tons.

Following the completion of quality control and other processes, the company anticipates that the new capacity will be fully operations in around 45 days.

Via the factory’s expansion, Sunsi seeks to support bigger orders from domestic and foreign sector firms. The company is planning a second expansion in the future that will bring the Wendeng plant’s total capacity to 75,000 tons. It is looking for financing.

At the end of August, Sunsi received an initial order for 117 tons of TCS from Russian polysilicon producer Nitol Solar, representing its first supply contract outside China. The company’s management is in talks with U.S., European and Taiwanese companies for TCS orders, as it seeks to attract more contracts outside China.

TCS is a chemical used in the production of polysilicon, an essential raw material in solar cells.

Canadian Day4 awards manufacturing contract to Taiwanese sector firm
Canadian photovoltaic module maker Day4 Energy Inc said on Sept. 12 that Taiwanese sector player Ever Energy Co Ltd would manufacture Day4’s DNA solar cells in Taiwan using Day4’s stay-powerful technology.

The stay-powerful technology replaces the conventional, high temperature solar cell soldering process, Day4 said. The company did not provide any financial details on the agreement.

“Without the need for high temperature soldering, electroluminescence or concern for micro-cracks, cell producers can offer module manufacturers the added benefits of extremely low cell to modules power losses,” commented the company’s president, George Rubin.

In August, Day4 reported a second-quarter net loss of US$5.6 million, compared to US$4.23 million a year earlier. Gross margin for the quarter came negative at 7.8 percent, compared to a positive margin of 2 percent. Revenue dropped by 48 percent year-on-year to US$23.47 million, as a result of volatility in the solar power market.

China Longyuan’s wind power output grows 12.4 percent year-on-year in Aug. 2011
Wind farm developer and operator China Longyuan Power Group Corp reported wind power output for August 2011 of 694,048 MWh, up 12.42 percent year-on-year.

Output from other renewables rose by 33.13 percent to 11,948 MWh, while output from the coal power business declined by 4.33 percent to 1,038,133 MWh.

China Longyuan saw its total power generation for August climb by 1.91 percent on the year to 1,744,128 MWh.

For the eight months through August, the company produced 16,592,970 MWh of power, up 20.48 percent in annual terms. A total of 8,520,764 MWh came from the wind power segment.

Shanghai Electric to supply 100 MW of turbines for Chinese offshore wind project
Chinese Shanghai Electric Group Co Ltd has won a contract to supply 100 megawatts of wind turbines for the second phase of China’s Shanghai East Sea Bridge offshore wind project, Windpower Monthly reported last week.

Shanghai East Sea Offshore Wind Power Co has selected Shanghai Electric to deliver its 3.6-megawatt turbines, after testing the turbines against 5-megawatt wind turbines of an undisclosed producer, the magazine said.

Also, according to reports, Shanghai will supply the turbines at RMB4,790 (US$749) per kilowatt.

The 102-megawatt first phase of East Sea Bridge Offshore Wind Farm includes 34 units of 3 megawatt wind turbines by Chinese wind turbine major Sinovel Wind Group on the east side of the Shanghai East Sea Bridge. The wind farm started operation in June 2010.

Ledian Tianwei Silicon to pour US$119 million into technology upgrades
Chinese polycrystalline silicon producer Leshan Ledian Tianwei Silicon Technology intends to spend some RMB760 million (US$119 million) in the next two years to upgrade the technology it uses.

The company is a 51/49 joint venture between Leshan Electric Power Co Ltd and Baoding Tianwei Baobian Electric Co Ltd. The two companies will jointly inject CNY382 million (US$59.59 million) into Ledian Tianwei in proportion to their respective stakes.

Leshan Electric said that the planned upgrades would not affect Ledian Tianwei’s existing polysilicon operations.

This industry report brief is courtesy of AII Data Processing.

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