Major monocrystalline wafer producer, LONGi Silicon Materials is entering the PV module market to demonstrate and promote the significant cost reductions achieved in monocrytalline wafer production and highlight the performance and life-time yield superiority of monocrystalline products over multicrystalline.
LONGi Silicon Materials Corp’s chairman, Zhenguo Li told PV Tech during SNEC 2014 that the company was entering the PV module market with the ramp of mono module capacity at a new facility to 180MW in 2014.
The company has claimed to have made major breakthroughs in non-silicon production costs of mono wafers that have almost eliminated the price barrier between mono and multi.
To prove to the PV industry that mono is competitive in all key downstream markets, LONGi will sell the modules into the downstream markets to leverage its monocrystalline wafer technology developments of both N-type and P-type.
LONGi’s chairman told PV Tech that PV manufacturers were planning to increase the production of mono modules in 2014 to meet increased focus on distributed markets, such as China which will require high-performance modules and better long-term yields to be attractive under current low FiT payment structures.
Li noted that the company was already supplying PV manufacturers outside China such as the Japan, Europe and the US with mono wafers that better serve the commercial and residential rooftop markets than multicrystalline products.