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Yiwu home to world's largest photovoltaic module workshop

chinadaily.com.cn| Updated :2021-09-06

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A workshop in the Yiwu factory of JA Solar. [Photo/IC]

Yiwu, a county-level city in East China's Zhejiang province, is home to the world's largest photovoltaic module workshop which is the size of 10 soccer fields.

The workshop is run by JA Solar, a world-leading manufacturer of high-performance photovoltaic products. In March 2020, the company signed a 10.2-billion-yuan ($15.8 billion) investment agreement with the Yiwu government to build a factory in the city to meet the growing demands of the photovoltaic industry.

Construction of the factory got underway last May. Mass production of its products commenced this January.

The factory's smart workshops, which are kept at a constant temperature of 25 degrees Celsius and a humidity level of 60 percent, are backed by big data, machine learning, and other advanced digital technologies. A variety of robotic arms and automatic guided vehicles (AGV) are used to handle cargo here.

The factory also boasts the world's largest smart stereoscopic warehouse that has the highest tonnage in the photovoltaic industry.

Driven by China's carbon neutrality goals, the photovoltaic industry has seen a continued surge in purchase orders this year.

"The No 2 Workshop in the Yiwu factory has already reached its maximum output capacity. Some new equipment in the No 1 Workshop is being adjusted and tested. In addition, a second-phase construction project on the factory is taking place quickly," said You Jiguo, a manager at the Yiwu branch of JA Solar.

You said that the Yiwu factory, which is aiming to boost its output capacity, is expected to generate 10 billion yuan in revenue by the end of this year.