ReneSola said it has progressed on two manufacturing fronts, with the start of trial production of its in-house steel wire used for slicing solar wafers and the development of a new generation of higher capacity casting furnaces.
The company expects to reach a production capacity of 8400MT for its steel wire by the end of 2011. ReneSola believes the in-house wire will cost significantly less than the material provided by the company's current suppliers.
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The new G6 casting furnaces will each have a capacity of 650kg and annual output of 8MW, compared to approximately 6MW for ReneSola's current furnaces. The company also plans to upgrade some of its existing casting furnaces through proprietary techniques, which will increase output to approximately 7MW. It will replace all current casting furnaces with the new G6 casting and upgraded tools as early as the end of 2011, the company said.
“These breakthroughs are indicative of the hard work and innovation of our R&D team, which is constantly looking to lower our costs and improve our efficiencies,” said CEO XIanshou Li. “I am proud to say that we have already mastered our steel wire production techniques and expect our wafer processing cost to decrease once full production of our in-house steel wire begins. Our wafer production will be further supported by our new G6 casting furnaces, which were developed in-house and customized for our solar products to improve our annual wafer production capacity.
“As we move forward with these developments, we will continue to utilize the expertise and innovation of our R&D team, and with the support of our strong balance sheet, lead the industry in cost-effective solar wafer manufacturing.”