China Sunergy prioritizes ‘Quasar’ cell production

China Sunergy is shifting capital spending to its ‘Quasar’ selective emitter monocrystalline-based cell technology.

This move could herald a wave of tier-1 China-based PV manufacturers switching priority away from capacity expansions and focus on the ramp of high-efficiency cells and modules.

China Sunenergy management gave clear plans during a conference call to discuss third quarter results, regarding the ramp of the Quasar technology, which will replace a significant amount of existing but idled capacity by the end of 2012.

CSUN’s, CEO, Stephen Zhifang Cai highlighted in the call that not only was there overcapacity continuing to exist at the production level but was prevalent throughout the supply chain.

He added that China Sunenergy had instigated a significant increase in capital expenditures for the fourth quarter – to the tune of over US$50 million, that would primarily be used to ramp its Quasar cell technology to 140MW in the first quarter of 2012, while planning to shift around 25% of module production using the high-efficiency cells.

CSUN has spent US$13.8 million on CapEx in the third quarter, primarily for previously planned capacity expansions.

“In October,  we made our first commercial sale of Quasar modules to our customer in Switzerland and as first of, many more to come,” commented Cai. “Our new Quasar cell production line is consistently trending out cells with an average efficiency rate of 18.6%.

The Swiss customer mentioned by Cai was Sunergic S.A.., which CSUN had delivered 0.30MW of the Quasar modules in mid-October, 2011.