Chinese news outlets reported in late April that Hewang New Energy has formalized its plan to build a base for manufacturing silicon crystal ingots, silicon wafers, and PV cells in Huainan, a prefecture-level city in China’s Anhui Province. Recently, the agreement for the project was signed between Hewang and representatives of the Huainan government. The signing ceremony was held in the Nanying Guest House that is within the city. Attendees of the event included Ren Zefeng, Secretary of the Huainan Municipal Party Committee; Chu Yubao, Chairman of Hewang; Sun Lianghong, member of the Huainan Municipal Party Committee and Executive Deputy Mayor of Huainan; and Ou Donglin, member of the Municipal Party Committee and the Minister of the city’s United Front Department.

According to the reporting by Chinese news outlets, Hewang focuses on the development, manufacturing, and sales of silicon wafers for PV cells. The planned manufacturing base will have 10GW per year of production capacity for high-efficiency PV cells and 6GW per year of production capacity for ingots and wafers. The total investment in this project comes to RMB 5.04 billion, of which the PV cell production facility accounts for around RMB 3.91 billion and the facilities for ingot and wafer production account for around RMB 1.13 billion. Once up and running, the base will be capable of reaching RMB 10 billion per year in the value of cell output and RMB 3 billion per year in the value of ingot and wafer output.

Ren said that his government intends to make Huainan a major hub for new energy technologies within the province, so a substantial amount of resources has committed to develop the related industries and promote energy transition. In particular, the municipal government wants to set up medium- and large-sized PV projects as well as new kinds of integrated energy bases. Ren added that he hopes that Hewang and his government will further expand on their partnership and work together to accelerate the construction of the manufacturing base. The municipal government and party committee are expected to do their best to ensure the formation of a mutually beneficial relationship.