‘Solar Module Super League’ (SMSL) member Trina Solar has signed an agreement with the Yancheng Economic Development Zone. Jiangsu Province, China to build an 8.5GW advanced solar cell plant at a cost of approximately RMB 3.0 billion (US$460 million).

The agreement with the Jiangsu Yancheng Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee is for Trina Solar’s planned expansions of its Vertex 210mm large-area module production.

This is the third official announcement of large-area cell capacity expansions in the second half of 2020, after its IPO. Trina Solar’s total solar cell capacity expansion announcement since its IPO total 18GW.

The SMSL has also officially announced large-area module assembly plans totalling 31GW in the second half of 2020, according to PV Tech’s analysis. Total capital expenditure plans for both cell and module assembly have reached approximately US$2 billion since the IPO.

The company’s latest strategic plan is to have a total of 50GW of module assembly production capacity by the end of 2021, a year ahead of its previously announced strategy.

Based in existing capacity and announcements, Vertex solar cell capacity could reach around 18GW by the end of 2021.

However, Trina Solar did not disclose the timelines for the construction and ramp of the latest Yancheng Vertex cell project, yet this announcement is in line with 2021 expansion plans.

The company had plans to reach 21.7GW of high-efficiency Vertex cell capacity by the end of 2022.