A leading manufacturer of high-performance solar cells, JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. is one of the industry’s leading lights. The company sells its products to solar manufacturers worldwide, who assemble and integrate solar cells into modules and systems that convert sunlight into electricity for residential, commercial, and utility-scale power generation. PES spoke to Ming Yang, VP, Business Development & Corporate Communications.
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PES: Welcome to PES magazine. Your company is only a few years old – can you tell us a little about its history and how it has developed over that time?
Ming Yang: JA Solar was founded in 2005 by Jinglong Group, one of China’s leading mono-crystalline wafer companies, and a group of PV experts from Australia. The company started operations in 2006, and quickly became one of the world’s leading solar cell suppliers in 2007. By forming strategic relationships with its suppliers, JA Solar was able to secure silicon and wafers during the limited supply years and to execute on its growth strategy. In 2008, JA Solar grew its revenue year-over-year by more than 100% to USD $800M, with shipment more than doubling to 277MW. The company prides itself in high quality products, competitive pricing, operation flexibility, and focus on customer service. Today we are one of the leading suppliers of solar cells in the world.
PES: Can you outline a few of the benefits of your crystalline solar cells?
MY: Key benefits are:
• High conversion efficiency of 17.6% for mono-crystalline solar cells and 16.2% for multi-crystalline solar cells, resulting in higher power output
• Crystalline-silicon solar cells have proven operating history of greater than 25 years
• High quality and reliability
• Strict control on power degradation
• Manufacturing process and quality control that minimises shunt resistance to substantially reduce the occurrence of ‘hot spots’ in solar modules, which can cause module failure
• Technology roadmap to increase conversion efficiency to >20%
PES: Europe is obviously a huge market for PV business, are you actively pursuing further growth in the region?
