 | | Solar batteries provide eco-friendly opportunities. |
The Kunshan High-Tech Development Zone in Kunshan was established in April last year. Now, a new renewable industrial base there is nearing operational capacity. In order to seize the opportunity for the development of renewable energy, a 100-hectare renewable energy industry demonstration base, with an annual production capacity of 2,000 megawatts, is to be built in five years by importing foreign equipment and fostering local talent. The planning has begun to meet expectations.
The base will mainly produce basic serial products such as polycrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon, slices, solar cells, solar cell modules and solar energy batteries. The planning also calls for a solar energy raw materials supply and purchasing centre, a solar energy equipment manufacturing centre and a training centre.
The infrastructure of the base has been completed. Seven enterprises producing solar battery wafers, battery parts and components have moved into the base, with investments totalling US$200 million. A solar energy industry is indeed taking shape.
Two of these seven projects are flagship projects invested by the world's leading manufacturers in the solar energy industry.
One is Motech (Suzhou) New Energy Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Motech, Taiwan's biggest and the world's fifth largest solar power battery manufacturer. It mainly produces raw materials for making solar cells, such as polycrystalline silicon rods and slices, as well as serial basic products for solar batteries.
Investment in the first phase of the Motech project was US$20 million and total investment will amount to US$50 million. The plan is to achieve a production capacity of 240 megawatts by the end of 2008. Phase I infrastructure and plant construction is underway and is slated for completion and commissioning in the first quarter of next year.
The other flagship project, GE Silicones Solar Power (Kunshan) Co Ltd, is a subsidiary of GE Silicones, a leading silicon manufacturer in the US. Phase I investment totalled US$50 million.
The GE project will mainly produce single-crystal silicon rods, sliced single-crystal silicon wafers, solar cells and solar cell modules and integrated systems. The overall target is to achieve an annual production capacity of 1,000 megawatts. The project is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of this year and is expected to achieve an annual output value of US$4.2 billion.
The arrival of these large projects and the clusters of enterprises that will eventually spring up around them will give the Yangtse River Delta's (YRD's) solar energy-led renewable energy industry plenty of room for development.
Renewable energy, primarily solar energy, is an important strategic alternative energy for building China into a resource-conserving and eco-friendly society with sustainable economic and social development.
China has now become the world's third largest solar battery producing country, and the YRD has a high concentration of solar battery manufacturing enterprises.
from Steffi Peng, Shanghai Office (Image courtesy of Xinhua News Agency) | 
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