REC Solar is switching all of its manufacturing/production capacity at its manufacturing plant in Tuas, Singapore, over to its half-cut PERC cell technology, according to recent reports.
The company’s TwinPeak series of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules features the aforementioned technology.
The production conversion will run around SG$200 million (~$182 million), and will be accompanied by SG$50 million (~$45 million) in new research and development funding to be utilized with the Singapore-based R&D center SERIS (Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore) over the next half decade or so.
This new research and development funding will be utilized primarily in the development of a new, novel 350 Watt (W) solar PV module over this half-decade period of time. REC Solar is reportedly expecting the new solar PV module design to generate up to 1.35 times the electricity as a comparably sized standard solar PV multi-crystalline module — while keeping costs comparable.
This marks the first time that a major solar PV manufacturer has switched all of its production capacity to half-cut and PERC cell technologies.
To provide some further background here, as we reported back in November, the Norwegian company is expecting its global module sales to climb roughly 10% in 2016 (as compared to 2015).
The CEO of REC Solar, Steve O’Neil, commented at the time: “Continuously declining PV system costs are one of several key drivers for the industry. We are also expecting a strong agreement at the UN Climate Change conference, reflecting the ambitious targets on emissions and renewable energies set by around 150 countries worldwide in advance. This should further increase solar’s momentum, which we will continue to leverage. Besides expanding our module capacity to 1.7 GW by (the) end of 2016, we are exploring new business models and penetrating new emerging markets.”
It’s also worth noting here that the company rose to become the third-largest solar PV supplier in the US residential market last year.
Image via The Quartz Corp
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