China-based module assembly automation specialist Suzhou Horad New Energy Equipment Co (Horad) has secured a 200MW turnkey module assembly line order with major Taiwanese cell producer, Motech Industries.
In October, 2015 Motech and China-based monocrystalline ingot/wafer producer Solargiga Energy, formed a JV module assembly partnership with plans to add a total of 600MW of new module assembly capacity at Solargiga’s existing facilities in China.
The JV capacity expansion would double Solargiga’s nameplate module production capacity and was planned have an initial 400MW of capacity come on stream in the first-half of 2016, followed by a further 200MW in the third quarter of 2016.
Solargiga had a nameplate capacity of approximately 1.2GW of monocrystalline silicon ingot production, approximately 900MW of solar wafer production capacity, as well as an annual capacity of approximately 300MW of monocrystalline solar cell capacity.
Horad surpasses 5GW of orders
The company has notably been successful in securing a large number of fully automated module assembly line orders in 2015 that totalled around 5GW.
In October, 2015 Horad had secured a 200MW automated turnkey module assembly line order from China-based polysilicon producer Daqo New Energy, while in December, 2015 secured a major 950MW turnkey line order from China-based, Risen Energy.
Also in December, 2015, Horad secured a major 750MW automated turnkey line order from JA Solar.
In total the company claimed that it had secured turnkey assembly line orders of 5.38MW in 2015, coming from a number of major Chinese manufacturers such as Canadian Solar, Longi Silicon Materials and GCL-Poly as well as orders in South Korea with JSPV.
According to PV Tech’s own long-term global manufacturing capacity expansion announcements analysis, a total of approximately 24GW of new module assembly capacity plans and integrated cell and module plants were announced in 2015.
The majority of these planned capacity expansions have lead times that stretch from 2016 through 2019.