From a current solar cell production capacity of 9.2 GW in the form of three production fabs in China, Aiko Solar is now striving to dramatically increase its capacity to 45 GW by 2022.

Chinese solar cell producer Aiko Solar has revealed its manufacturing expansion plans to eventually have 45 GW of high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cell capacity by the end of 2022, increasing from 9.2 GW currently.

The development will take place in phases starting with 22 GW aimed to be achieved by the end of 2020, scaled up to 32 GW by the end of 2021, and finally hitting the 45 GW mark by the end of 2022.

Currently, the company manufactures PERC solar cells from three production bases of 1.6 GW in Guangdong, and two in Zhejiang YiWu and Tianjin, each with 3.8 GW capacity, as shared on its website.

The management also shared successfully achieving mass production for its 210 mm side length high-efficiency solar cells (based on so called M12 wafers) at its Yiwu, China located facility with which it believes can be sold commercially starting from the second half of 2020. At its Tianjin fab, it has been producing solar cells with a edge length of 166 mm (M6) since 2019.

Participating in a December 2019 TaiyangNews webinar on larger wafer formats, Aiko Solar’s International Sales Director Vincent Lau said the world will keep moving forward in its journey to larger wafer sizes as these enable increase cell power leading to more competitive products in the market (see ‘Big’ Benefits For Modules).