Solar EnerTech has finished the build-out of its second solar cell production line, the company said. The addition of the new line, located at the company’s manufacturing site in Shanghai, doubles its cell-making capacity from 25 to 50 MW.
“The completion of this second line is a great accomplishment for our company and we are pleased to have finished production two months ahead of schedule,” said Leo Young, CEO of Solar EnerTech. “Our business development team is working diligently to secure new orders so that we can utilize our second line to the fullest extent possible.
“We now have the ability to support dual-line production which provides us with the potential to increase our product orders and broaden our base of customers from Europe, North America and Asia,” he continued. “We are moving forward with our strategic plan and believe we are well positioned for continued growth ahead.”
Solar EnerTech maintains a 63,000 square-foot manufacturing plant in Shanghai’s Jinqiao Modern Technology Park, where in addition to its pair of 25-MW solar-cell lines it has a 50-MW solar module production facility.
Company CEO Young said in its most recent most recent financial report that “approximately 36% of our solar cell modules were manufactured using internally produced solar cells which improved our margin performance, but still resulted in higher manufacturing costs due to relatively low manufacturing volume.
“For our upcoming fiscal fourth quarter, we expect to produce nearly all of our modules using our own cells further increasing our manufacturing volume and improving our gross margin.”
The company has also established a joint R&D Lab at Shanghai University to develop higher efficiency cells and to put the results of that research to use in its manufacturing processes. Solar EnerTech’s marketing, purchasing, and distribution arm is based in Menlo Park, CA.
In September, Solar EnerTech bought a minority equity stake in 21-Century, a solar-grade polysilicon startup based in Dallas, in an effort to help secure its long-term feedstock supply.
