BEIJING: China-based PV manufacturer Zhejiang Sunflower Light Energy has reported a 30% increase in solar module shipments in 2015 as a result of the continued support by the Chinese government for solar deployment.
ZJ Sunflower reported full-year 2015 PV module shipments of 474.88MW, primarily for the Chinese domestic market, with shipments to Japan totalling 79.94MW.
The company reported 2015 operating income of around RMB1,824 million (US$282.47 million), up 10.9% from 2014. Domestic revenue accounted 68% of total annual revenue in 2015. Profit was reported at around US$13.5 million, nearly a 200% increase of the previous year.
ZJ Sunflower noted that it 56.29MW of PV power plants on its balance sheet at the end of 2015 located in Italy, Romania, Zhejiang and other regions of China.
The company had a nameplate capacity of 88 million pieces of polycrystalline silicon wafer production in 2015, 600MW of solar cell capacity and 800MW of PV module assembly capacity.
To improve yields and overall product quality, ZJ Sunflower said it had upgraded 200MW of module assembly production to being automated and achieved average multicrystalline solar cell conversion efficiencies of 18.3% and module efficiencies of 16.41% in 2015.