(Yicai Global) March 12 -- China's Longi Green Energy Technology will spend CNY3.1 billion (USD477.4 million) to build a solar cell plant in northwestern China to enhance its downstream operations.

Unit Longi Leye Photovoltaic Technology has penned an investment agreement with an economic and technological development zone in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the Xi'an-based parent said in a statement yesterday.

Longi, whose monocrystalline silicon wafer capacity makes up about half of the world's total, has lately been expanding its business into solar modules, cells, and even plants.

The new project will raise the firm’s annual production capacity of high-efficiency monocrystalline silicon cells by 5 gigawatts to help it seize market opportunities in the solar power sector, it added. The plant, which will use monocrystalline silicon wafers to make solar cells, is expected to be ready next year.

In January, the company said that it will establish a solar cell plant in Shaanxi province next to Ningxia, spending about CNY8 billion to add 15 GW in output. That plant should also be operational in 2022.

Longi's stock price [SHA: 601012] climbed by 2.4 percent to CNY91.09 (USD14) this morning.

Editor: Emmi Laine