Thin-Film Solar Fab Ramps Up Quickly in China
Oerlikon Solar has announced early completion of one of mainland China's largest thin-film solar panel factories, a Tianwei project producing 46 MW per year.
Staff -- PV Society, 8/27/2009
Baoding Tianwei Solarfilms Co. Ltd. (Baoding, China) and Oerlikon Solar (Trübbach, Switzerland) have announced the early completion of one of mainland China's largest thin-film solar panel factories. The first phase of the Tianwei project produces 500,000 modules per year, generating a total of 46 MW.
Oerlikon Solar has 10 factories in production with its thin-film solar equipment. Tianwei is using the company's Amorph High Performance PV technology for Phase 1. "Oerlikon Solar surpassed its promised completion time and efficiency," said Ma Wenxue, general manager of Tianwei. "Watching this state of-the-art fab go from an empty room to full production in six months was stunning."
Reaching production quickly is essential to allow Tianwei to address the rapidly growing Chinese solar market. Under the Golden Sun program announced July 21, China's Ministry of Finance will subsidize half of the construction costs for on-grid solar power plants and pay for up to 70% of off-grid installations, covering transmission costs where necessary.
