GCL expands high Efficiency and Differentiated Solar Cell capacity, even as competition retrenches
Nilekani is living in a fool’s paradise if he thinks that services alone could solve India’s Employement crisis
August 5, 2016As the Solar Manufacturing Industry enters Cyclical Overcapacity, Capex to dive going forward
August 8, 2016High Efficiency Solar Cells from GCL Poly
Polysilicon and solar wafer giant GCL Poly has been aggressively moving into the solar cell and panel making space. It shipped more than 3 GW of solar
Solar Panel
panels last year, making it a top 10 solar panel player. It has grown capacity both through brownfield and greenfield approaches. It plans to end 2016 with a capacity of 6 GW of panels, which would make it almost equal to industry leader Trina Solar.
The industry has recently seen a jump in overcapacity, with demand drying up from the key markets in China and USA. This has led most of the companies to rethink their expansion strategy in cells and modules. However, GCL is looking to continue expanding into the midstream and downstream parts of the supply chain. The group intends to raise around $500 million to increase its cell capacity by 1600 MW. Most of this capacity will be of high efficiency PERC cells, as well as black silicon cell capacity. Another 250 MW of HIT cell capacity will be added. This 2000 MW of cell capacity will make GCL one of the top suppliers of high efficiency and differentiated cell suppliers in the world, and make life difficult for the other top solar panel players such as Jinko Solar and Trina Solar, who are already suffering from low ASP and low demand.
Read GCL Solar Panel Reviews here.
China has remained immune from overcapacity issues, as cheap credit is easily available to even loss making companies. China’s industry favoring policies have caused massive overcapacity in industries such as steel, shipbuilding etc. Solar industry has been another one where overcapacity remains rampant. GCL which is one of the most well connected companies has been able to raise funds in huge amounts, to finance capacity expansion in the solar. It is already the largest polysilicon and wafer player and with the cell capacity it could become a dominant solar panel player as well.