JinkoSolar Builds 7 GW Ingot & Wafer Facility in Vietnam

Shanghai-headquartered JinkoSolar is investing $500 million to build a monocrystalline ingot and wafer manufacturing facility, which is expected to have an annual capacity of 7GW, in Quảng Ninh Province, Vietnam.

The Chinese solar module manufacturer has begun to work on the ingot and wafer facility, which will support its existing overseas production facilities.

As the first PV project launched in the Quảng Yên Coastal Economic Zone of Quảng Ninh Province, the facility is fully aligned with local development goals for clean and environmentally friendly industries, said the company. The project received approval from the local government in early 2021 and is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2022.

The latest estimations reveal that in January 2021, Vietnam had 16.5 GW solar power and 11.8 GW wind power. A further 6.6GW is expected to be delivered by the end of 2021.

Trina Solar, another major Chinese manufacturer, announced in May that its first batch of 210mm cells and Vertex modules for the North American market had been produced at the company’s Vietnam production facility. The company broke ground on its Thai Nguyen plant in December, and completed construction in five months. The factory has a capacity for 3 GW of cells and 4.5 GW of 210 modules.

On JinkoSolar’s recent news, Mr. Nigel Cockroft, General Manager of JinkoSolar (U.S.), commented, “The decision to build a facility in Vietnam is one component of our strategy to ensure the long-term stability of our global supply chain. This facility enables the use of raw material inputs from a variety of countries, thus increasing the amount of local content used in our modules, and especially in the modules produced in the Jacksonville, Florida facility.”

We have accumulated years of experience in the construction and management of global production facilities, while refining and cultivating an employee-oriented workplace environment to foster continuous innovation. For this project, we selected industry-leading crystal pulling and wafer slicing equipment to match the advanced technology and high production processes of our state-of-the-art cell and module plants.”

We expect demand for clean energy to continue to accelerate over the next few years and will continue to optimize our global supply chain management to ensure the steady supply of premium modules to our customers.”

“This country needs a smart approach to energy policy, and Jacksonville-based JinkoSolar US is providing good, high-paying jobs in a state-of-the-art solar facility,” said Congressman John Rutherford (R-FL). “I congratulate them on their efforts to provide a U.S. supply chain which increases business certainty and ensures JinkoSolar US will continue to flourish in Jacksonville.”

“I am proud to have a leader in renewable energy in my own backyard, employing hundreds of Floridians at its facility,” said Congressman Al Lawson (D-FL). “With this new $500 million announcement, JinkoSolar US is clearly committed to a supply chain that helps realize the energy goals of the Biden Administration.”

In a recent joint statement, JinkoSolar and other major Chinese solar PV manufacturers JA Solar and LONGi announced that they had reached a consensus on the standardisation of PV modules produced that are based on M10 wafers.

The standardization scheme of modules 182mm (M10) wafers, as agreed by the three parties is as follows:

1. The size of 54-cell modules: 1722mm * 1134mm, mounting hole spacing: 1400mm;
2. The size of 72-cell modules: 2278mm * 1134mm, mounting hole spacing: 400mm, 1400mm;
3. The size of 78-cell modules: 2465mm * 1134mm, mounting hole spacing: 400mm, 1200mm/1500mm.