LONGi Green Energy Technology Co, the largest monocrystalline wafer producer, has signed a new agreement to build a new 20GW wafer plant in Chuxiong, Yunnan province with further plans to expand capacity to 40GW in the future. Image: LONGi

LONGi Green Energy Technology Co, the largest monocrystalline wafer producer, has signed a new agreement to build a new 20GW wafer plant in Chuxiong, Yunnan province with further plans to expand capacity to 40GW in the future.

LONGi has signed an investment agreement with Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture for an initial 20GW mono wafer plant that LONGi is expected to invest around RMB 2.0 billion (US$286 million) in manufacturing equipment.

The company had recently announced further mono ingot expansions for 2020 and beyond. The latest wafer expansion plans are in-line with those separate expansions to keep balanced capacity of bot ingots and wafers.

However, the latest wafer expansion plans at Chuxiong include the expected further expansion of the new facility to 40GW. LONGi did not provide timelines for the latest wafer expansions in China.

As with previous ingot and wafer expansions, LONGi is relying on hydro-electric power for its energy needs at the new facilities.

Chuxiong is a major wafer manufacturing hub for LONGi, having already established two 10GW facilities at the location in 2016 and 2018.

The latest wafer expansion plans indicate that LONGi is preparing to take wafer production capacity beyond 100GW as plans are already in place to expand capacity to around 65GW in 2021.