(Yicai Global) April 24 -- Aiko Solar Energy, one of China’s main suppliers of photovoltaic cells, unveiled its third big capacity expansion project in two weeks, saying the firm will spend CNY36 billion (USD5.2 billion) on a new plant to make high-efficiency solar cells and panels.

Aiko Solar plans to ink a deal with the government of Jinan in Shandong province to build the plant there, the Shanghai-based company said late yesterday. With an annual production capacity of 30 gigawatts of high-efficiency solar cells and 30 GW of solar modules, the plant will be built in three phases taking five years in total.

The first phase will cost CNY12 billion and produce 10 GW of cells and 10 GW of modules per year, with construction to begin in the first half of next year and become operational a year later, Aiko Solar noted. The schedule for the second and third phases has not been determined yet, it said.

Aiko Solar also plans to set up a unit in Jinan to raise funds and invest, build, and operate the project, according to the company.

The company had already announced two new projects on April 11. The first, located in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, will produce 15 GW of high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells and 15 GW of panels a year and cost CNY12.9 billion. The second, destined for Zhuhai, Guangdong province, will have an annual capacity of 3.5 GW of high-efficiency solar cells and 10 GW of modules, with a total investment of CNY6.4 billion (USD927 million).

Aiko Solar, which has four production bases in Foshan and Zhuhai in Guangdong province, Yiwu, and Tianjin, is one of the world’s major suppliers of solar cells and can produce 42.5 GW of high-efficiency solar cells annually, according to its website.

Shares of Aiko Solar [SHA: 600732] closed 0.5 percent lower at CNY29.23 (USD4.24) each today, after earlier rising by as much as 1.6 percent.

Editor: Martin Kadiev