Revenue of Guangdong Aiko Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (Aiko Solar) in 2015 grew about 20~30%. It is some of the cell manufacturers that maintained a positive growth rate after last market reshuffling. Gang Chen, Aiko Solar’s President, revealed that Aiko Solar has prepared to expand its capacity to 1.6GW by the end of this year.
In an interview with China's Nanfang Daily, Gang Chen expressed, after China's PV industry shuffling from 2011 to 2012, Aiko Solar became the only remaining c-Si cell manufacturer in Guangdong province. Since the second half of 2013, the market has gradually moved to the balance of supply and demand, Aiko Solar's capacity has been loaded from then to this year.
Most of Aiko Solar's major customers are tier-one manufacturers, including Trina Solar, JA Solar, JinkoSolar, Canadian Solar and Neo Solar Power (NSP). In order to enhance Aiko Solar's industrial position, Aiko Solar has proactively developed, researched and applied for patents. As for the competition between c-Si and thin film PV products in the PV industry, Gang Chen expressed, Aiko Solar chose the lower-cost, higher energy conversion efficiency c-Si cells as its goal of development because this firm has been optimistic about c-Si's future market scale development.
In the interview, Gang Chen said, Aiko Solar has been capable of producing PID-free products. Moreover, in December of 2015, this company patented PERC products' invention patents. It estimated that by the end of this year, all of its capacity will be shifted to produce PERC products. Furthermore, Aiko Solar plans to expand its cell capacity to 1.6GW in 2016. Currently, its multi c-si cells’ average conversion efficiency reaches 18.5%, and mono c-si cells’ has surpassed 20%.
Chen also noted that China's PV energy generating cost per kWh might drop to 0.3 RMB within five years. After that, solar power will become a more competitive energy option.