Chinese firm plans 30GW solar manufacturing hub

23 October 2023

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China's Trina Solar has announced plans to set up a solar production and supply chain hub in the UAE.

According to local media reports, the plan entails setting up a production base for up to 50,000 tonnes of high-purity silicon, 30,000MW of silicon wafers and 5,000MW of battery modules across the solar industry chain.

These are understood to be annual capacities for the plants.

The project is located in the China-UAE Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Park and will be built in three phases.

An agreement for the deal was signed by Trina Solar, Abu Dhabi Ports and Jiangsu Provincial Overseas Cooperation & Investment (Jocic).

The China-UAE Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Park is an industrial zone located in Area A of Khalifa Port Free Trade Zone in Abu Dhabi.

In July 2017, five firms from China's eastern province of Jiangsu committed to invest an estimated AED1.1bn ($300m) in the free zone.

At the time, Jocic was designated the main stakeholder of the industrial zone after signing a 50-year lease agreement with Abu Dhabi Ports Company.

The firms and their planned investments in the industrial zone include:

  • Hanergy Thin Film Power Group: AED800m in thin film production
  • Guanzheng Group: AED155m in integrated industrial composite plant
  • Fantai Mining: AED82m copper production of non-ferrous metals
  • Jiangsu Jinzi: AED163m for environmental protection equipment
  • (Fifth firm): AED55m steel production

The industrial zone was initially expected to occupy a land area of about 2 square kilometres (sq km) and cater to firms specialising in energy, aluminium, biomedicine and food production.

The land allocated for the China-UAE Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Park was expanded to 12 sq km the following year.

Trina Solar's planned project in Abu Dhabi follows an announcement by another Chinese company to build a solar wafer factory in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's Vision Industries and China's TCL Central New Energy Technology Company last week signed a joint development agreement to implement the kingdom's first photovoltaic crystalline chip factory.

According to a local media report, the project's first phase will have a design capacity equivalent to 20GW of solar.

Photo: Trina Solar

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Jennifer Aguinaldo
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    "We need to be rational from the sector readiness perspective. Readiness to develop such capacities, supply chain, logistics, technology, robustness, business continuity and reliability [takes time]. This sector is very nascent … at the beginning of the launch of this sector a couple of years ago, people rode the wave and overpromised," El-Ramahi noted.

    "Now with an understanding of the reality on the ground, many people are pulling away, which sometimes resonates negatively with decision-makers, but green hydrogen is real and low carbon hydrogen is the future."

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    "History is made by achievements, not by promises," El-Ramahi said. "We have already overachieved… proving to the world that we can make commercial projects happen on the ground and Abu Dhabi has always been a pioneer and first-mover in the energy sector."

    Abu Dhabi intends to replicate its success in the energy sector's previous four waves – oil and gas in the 1960s; liquefied natural gas and anti-flaring in the 1970s; renewable energy in the 2000s; and nuclear energy in the 2020s – in the so-called fifth wave comprising low-carbon hydrogen   

    "We have made very rational steps in the past, our strategy does not endorse merely pouring money [on projects] or hiding subsidies … we don’t do that."

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    Given an extraordinary political will, Masdar and Abu Dhabi look set to develop or acquire what it takes to realise its ambition to become a global green hydrogen hub.

    "We are working with the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology to attract manufacturing companies and technology providers here in Abu Dhabi. This is in line with the government's decision made over a decade ago to transform into a knowledge-based economy, and we have been developing human capacity and attracting technology providers since then.

    "It's not about putting money on the table or under the table in the form of subsidies … we do business realistically, and transparently, and we want to compete against our own achievements on the ground," El-Ramahi concluded.

    Related read: Decarbonising steel is hard to resist

    Photo: Pixabay

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    Jennifer Aguinaldo