By Gabby Chen

(JW Insights) Apr 19 -- TCL Zhonghuan(TCL中环), the leading Chinese photovoltaic silicon wafer maker, is to build a 25GW solar cell plant in Guangzhou Development Zone of Guangzhou in southern China's Guangdong Province, the company announced.

TCL Zhonghuan signed a cooperation agreement recently with Guangzhou's municipal government and Guangzhou Development Zone Management Committee to build the facility, with an investment of RMB10.6 billion ($1.54 billion).

The new plant will mainly produce G12 N-Type TOPCon cells. It is expected to start operations in the first half of 2024, with an annual output value of RMB16 billion ($2.33 billion) at full production capacity.

Attending the project signing ceremony, Li Dongsheng, founder and chairman of TCL - the parent company of TCL Zhonghuan, said that TCL plans to increase investment, accelerate project construction, and make new contributions to promote the high-quality development of the technology manufacturing industry by building industrial bases and technology innovation centers.

As an "Industry 4.0 intelligent plant," the new facility will leverage equipment automation and digital technology to optimize the entire production process.

In addition, TCL Zhonghuan's new plant will be situated next to the 8.6th generation oxide semiconductor new display plant of TCL CSOT (TCL华星), a leading display provider and another subsidiary of TCL. The RMB35 billion ($5.08 billion) display project has a monthly production capacity of 180,000 glass substrates and started mass production on April 6 this year, according to TCL Zhonghuan.