GCL Technology, one of China’s largest solar panel materials producers, will reportedly invest 700 million yuan (almost USD$98 million) to transition to a more lucrative next-generation technology, as the industry grapples with losses and oversupply.
The Hong Kong-listed company aims to complete the first phase of a 500 megawatt (MW) plant in Kunshan by the middle of next year, for solar modules that combine cells stacked with perovskite and crystalline silicon, according to a statement by Fan Bin, chairman of GCL Perovskite. “The value of the [nascent] perovskite technology lies in the ample room for uplifting its energy conversion efficiency,” he said. “That is why manufacturers are willing to invest in its development.” The future cost of production using the perovskite-silicon technology could be lower than the crystalline silicon technology, he added.
The Suzhou, Jiangsu-based unit will spend 500 million yuan on the equipment and 200 million yuan to fit out a factory with dust-free clean rooms. A second line of the same capacity will be added later.
Fan co-founded the entity in 2013 to commercialize the technology. GCL Tech bought more than 40% of the firm in 2017, giving it a controlling stake.
GCL has signed agreements with prospective customers for the output from the new production line, including China Huaneng Group, State Power Investment Corp and Hong Kong and China Gas (Towngas), Fan said. It is also in talks with some potential overseas partners.
GCL’s perovskite-silicon product has passed efficiency stability tests by certification provider TUV Rheinland, based on the same parameters as crystalline silicon products, he said. It could take two to three years for customers to gain confidence in the new technology, he added.
Most players in the solar industry chain, such as makers of silicon, polysilicon, wafers, cells and modules, are incurring losses because of severe overcapacity.
Fan said the main reason for that is because conventional crystalline technology has only slightly improved the efficiency of converting sunlight to electricity by 0.1 percentage point annually on average since 2017 to 27.3% at present.
“This means new entrants can churn out products almost as good as those of the leaders simply by buying production equipment in the market, which encourages price-based competition through aggressive capacity expansion,” he said.
The theoretical upper limit of energy conversion efficiency of silicon solar cells is 29.4%, against 43% for the new perovskite-crystalline silicon technology, according to Xian-based wafers and modules maker Longi Green Energy Technology.
GCL, which built a 100MW trial production line in 2021, has reportedly achieved 26.3% efficiency for perovskite-silicon modules, higher than the 22 to 23% for most commercial crystalline silicon products, Fan said.
Daiwa Capital Markets analyst Leo Lu said the biggest challenge facing early adopters of the perovskite technology is its poor stability, given its average lifespan of only about 10,000 hours currently.
“Commercialization of perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells is not feasible within the next three years according to some mainstream solar cell companies,” he said. It remains a promising technology in the longer term, Lu said, adding that it will help the industry eliminate overcapacity as the whole supply chain will have to be rebuilt.
