Since 2016, when JinkoSolar overtook and became No. 1 in the global solar PV market, this giant has doubled up on its ambitions with its core module business flourish.
Following the huge success of its Cheetah which had hit orders of 10 GW, the robust demand of its latest Tiger 460-475Wp explains in large part why JinkoSolar’s capacity has been so tight although its yield rate keeps a satisfactory 98% or so. Unable to secure supply from JinkoSolar, many people went to its competitors looking for an alternative.
Some of its rivals declared that they had started high-volume production of 440-445 Wp module using 166”, but unable to please the investors in terms of LCOE and IRR, its utilization rate has remained at a disappointing level. So after everybody saw that, they came back to JinkoSolar and got in line.
Competition never stops as Trina and Sunrise anticipates its 500Wp high-volume production sometime this year, using 210”wafer. JinkoSolar has not bought into size hype, however. JinkoSolar’s CTO Dr. Jin went after 166” and 210” publicly, arguing that Tiger TR process was genuine “high energy density” – referring to a change in the cell architecture and the design connecting the cells together, whose results boost in performance. “This is very different than our competitors’ road map. If you compare their new products’ actual scale, it only represented a wafer size improvement,” Dr. Jin said. In other words, JinkoSolar still has an edge over its rivals. JinkoSolar later asserted it would bypass the 500Wp process and move directly into 500 Wp and beyond with its new, evolved architecture to deliver a 20 percent higher power performance. It means that 166” may be fading out while 210” fate will be highly uncertain.
