Speaking exclusively with African Review, Hadyr KOUMAKPAI, sales director Africa at JA Solar, has highlighted the company’s products and how these can help in sustainable power generation in emerging markets
African Review: Please brief about JA Solar’s unique product portfolio
HK: JA Solar is a world-leading solar module supplier and provides a product portfolio covering PV modules with wafers sizes of 158.75mm*158.75mm, 166mm*166mm and 182mm*182mm. And our offers have different types of 60-cell, 72-cell and 78-cell to customers to meet their diverse needs. In August, JA Solar has put its 182*182 series products DeepBlue 3.0 products into mass production. The power of 72-cell product has reached 545W. The cell efficiency has exceeded 23.0% and related module efficiency is above 21.0%.
African Review: In the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, how JA Solar’s unique products can help in sustainable power generation in emerging markets?
HK: The PV market is growing exponentially worldwide despite the pandemic. We continuously devoted to develop high-efficiency products that are designed to decrease cost and raise efficiency. In 2020, all our production lines of Mono PERC MBB Cells and related modules has been switched to produce modules and cells adopting Ga-doped silicon wafers, which effectively mitigates the initial light-induced degradation (LID) issue that limits the performance of solar modules with traditional Si wafers. Regarding the LCOE which is the main factor of consideration in solar PV investment, the company has also made breakthroughs. Compared with 400W modules, DeepBlue 3.0 could reduce LCOE by about 7%-9% for customers (this value may vary based on the conditions for the projects).
African Review: With regards to African market, how do you think the continent is progressing in using renewable sources for primary power generation? How JA Solar can contribute to that?
HK: No doubt that Africa is rich in renewable energy resources; the region holds great potential in developing solar energy. Actually with the development of local economy and industry, Africa sees a massive increase of energy demand. According to BNEF, merely Sub-Saharan African region received more than $10 million investment in renewables in 2018 and is expected to see an increase of 62% of PV capacity in 2021 against 2018. To boost the development of solar energy in the region, JA Solar would provide more high-efficiency and high-reliability PV modules to help reduce LCOE and ensure the long-term revenue of its customers. We will also expand our team in 2021 to be more close to the market and properly address the market demand and improve in our customer services.
African Review: Which African countries JA Solar is operating at the moment? Is there any further expansion plan in near-to-long-term future?
HK: We have been working in Africa market since 2012, and have supplied back in 2013, two megawatt in Morocco to Knitra, 15MW close to the red sea in Egypt, project fund by Abu Dhabi Fund, which was considerably massive plant at that time with Poly technology. We are devoted to provide high-quality PV modules and relevant services to African customers. We have won wide recognition and are among the top PV module suppliers in the relatively developed markets such Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania, where we have a sales based, and we are planning to have more expansion by next year. We are confident that Africa has a huge PV market with its rich solar radiation, large electricity demand, and we will definitively play a key role to supply high-quality PV products to customers from all African markets and promote solar PV application and development of green power in the continent.
African Review: In regards to your recent launch, world’s biggest and most powerful panel with an 810W model, when the module will be up for mass production?
HK: High power is the future trend of PV modules to reduce BOS cost and LCOE. By launching the JumboBlue 810 product, JA Solar has made an effective exploration to the research and development of high-power PV modules, and still making some study on the market acceptance and will be unveiled in consideration of market demand and the development condition of the whole industry chain. This year, we have launched the new product of DeepBlue 3.0 with a high power of 545W (72-cell type) based on the current situation of the upstream and downstream industry chain. and products has received a numbers of demand already and we have started with the first group of shipment with the first 4 Mw shipment to Africa before the end of this year. And next year Q1 production is getting filling up already.
