Green Energy Technology (GET), Taiwan’s largest wafer producer has signed an outsourcing agreement for ingot growing and wafer slicing with another Taiwan-based producer, Eversol.
GET said it would be purchasing a total of around 1GW of multicrystalline wafers, including around 400MW from Eversol, while retaining its in-house capacity at 2.2GW. GET said it was the third largest wafer independent wafer producer in the world.
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The company also noted that it had secured further production partnerships and was seeking others and would be providing on-site technical support to Eversol’s production facilities to ensure product quality.
GET has been running at above 95% utilisation rates in the first-half of 2015, though revenue has declined due to weak ASP’s, though in a recent visit to Taiwan, PV Tech was told by management that it expected a gradual improvement in ASP’s as demand remained strong.
“Our shipments were around 660MW in the first quarter [2015], same as the last quarter,” said Ting-Ting Chen, director and acting spokesperson for Green Energy Technology. “Overall order books are good but for ASP’s.”
Bill Wang, GET’s Plant Director at its Southern Science Park plant told PV Tech that its latest ‘Victoria’ series multicrystalline wafers used with conventional cells can achieve conversion efficiencies of 17.8% to 17.9%.
Wang also noted that the same wafers can produce 19% efficiencies when using the latest PERC cell technology.
From a guided tour of the ingot and wafering operations of GET’s plant, it was clear the company was running at higher utilisation rates, but also striking was the cleanliness of all the processing areas, not typical in this observers site visits of wafering facilities.
Clearly, GET is pushing higher wafer qualities in a bid to attract more tier-1 cell and integrated module manufacturing customers as many companies have deferred balancing wafer capacity with cell and module capacity in recent years.
However, the deal with Eversol and potential others also indicates the drive to reduce overcapacity in the wafer sector and restore ASP’s to return to profitable operating conditions and the need to preserve cash, while still expanding.
