(Yicai Global) March 14 -- Longi Green Energy Technology, the world’s largest maker of monocrystalline silicon wafers, said it expects the firm’s CNY7.8 billion (USD1.1 billion) solar cell plant in Ordos, a city in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to begin production in August.

The plant will have an annual output of 30 gigawatts of high-efficiency solar monocrystalline silicon cells, the Xi’an-based firm announced late yesterday. The products, developed with N-type TOPCon technology, will have a power conversion efficiency of over 25 percent.

Longi announced a year ago that it would invest CNY19.5 billion (USD2.8 billion) to build three photovoltaic projects in Ordos: the one that is about to come on stream, a plant with an annual capacity of 20 GW of monocrystalline silicon, and one with capacity of 5 GW of high-efficiency solar panels a year.

The firm said last August that it would spend an additional CNY6.9 billion to increase the capacity at the monocrystalline silicon plant to 46 GW.

Once fully operational, the solar cell plant is expected to bring Longi annual net profit of CNY2.9 billion on revenue of CNY18 billion based on current market prices, the company added, noting that the expanded production capacity for high-efficiency cells will boost Longi’s competitiveness.

Longi’s net profit likely rose 60 percent to 71 percent to between CNY14.5 billion and CNY15.5 billion last year from 2021, thanks to strong demand and surging prices, according to a forecast the firm made in January.

Longi’s stock price [SHA: 601012] dipped 0.3 percent to close at CNY41.88 (USD6.10) today. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.7 percent.

Editor: Futura Costaglione