At the SNEC's 10th International Photovoltaic Power Generation Conference & Exhibition (SNEC PV Power EXPO 2016) in Shanghai, China (24-26 May), Von Ardenne of Dresden, Germany (which manufactures equipment for industrial coatings on materials) signed contracts with subsidiaries of state-owned building material industry group China National Building Materials (CNBM) for the delivery of several coating systems for producing thin-film photovoltaic modules.
The coating systems deposit ultra-thin functional layers by magnetron sputtering onto glass substrates, which are then processed into solar modules.
The equipment will be used for the production of copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar modules in two 300MW plants in Bengbu (Anhui province) and Jiangyin (Jiangsu province) as well as the production of CdTe (cadmium telluride) solar modules in a 100MW plant in Chengdu (Sichuan province).
The equipment will be delivered and put into operation over the next two years. The investment is part of CNBM's long-term plan to build factories worldwide for the production of photovoltaic modules with an overall annual capacity of 15GW.
Founded in 1984, CNBM is China's largest building materials group. In 2012 it acquired Germany's CTFSolar GmbH, which provides production equipment and plant for manufacturing cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic modules. In September 2014, CNBM acquired CIGS solar module maker Avancis GmbH of Torgau, Germany.
