Qiangsheng Photovoltaic to build a power plant in Jiangsu

Solar cell manufacturer Qiangsheng Photovoltaic Technology Co plans to build a solar power plant in Rudong, Jiangsu Province this year, the company said on Tuesday adding the building of the plant indicates China's solar power industry moves into a new era.

The plant will cost RMB 28 million (US$3.9 million) and will use 16,000 pieces of thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells to generate 1 MW of solar electricity, the company said.

The solar electricity generation at the plant will be more expensive than that of traditional thermal power at RMB 3 per kWh, but the price will be reduced to about RMB 1 per KWh when more solar power plants are built, Company Chairman Sha Xiaolin said.

Most Chinese solar equipment makers still use polysilicon to convert sunlight into power whose cost stood at RMB 5 to RMB 6 per kw h, while with the adoption of thin-film technology, the cost is slightly more than RMB 2 per kwh, Sha said.

China produced 3,000 mW of solar cells last year, but its photovoltaic materials relied heavily on imports and 90% of photovoltaic cells were exported to Europe, the U.S. and Japan.