SEG Solar Launches 2G W Battery Manufacturing Plant in Indonesia

US battery and module manufacturer SEG Solar has commissioned the first phase of its latest battery manufacturing plant in Indonesia, with an annual production capacity of 2G W.

The company began construction of the plant in Batang county in September last year, and the launch marks the first commercial production of SEG Solar "'s first high-efficiency n-type solar cell. The conversion efficiency of the cell is as high as 26.4%. The company says the screen printing process used at the plant allows cells to be produced 20% faster than industry standard. This part of

the plant consists of ten battery production lines, which is only the first stage of production. SEG Solar expects to expand its battery capacity to a nominal annual capacity of 5 gigawatts and create a "fully vertically integrated industrial chain" that incorporates silicon rods, wafers and modules into the plant's output. The company expects to ship products from the Indonesian plant to the local market and export them to Europe and the United States.

Following the opening of a 2G W module manufacturing facility in Texas last year, SEG Solar has made the latest progress in the manufacturing field. American manufacturers have been looking to expand their plants for the past few years, especially after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Most of these new capacities are concentrated in the field of components, while investment in upstream supply chains such as silicon ingots, wafers and batteries has been significantly reduced.

However, in an interview with PV Tech at last week's European International Solar Energy Exhibition, Abigail Ross Hopper (Abigail Ross Hopper), president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA), said she believed that solar manufacturing had always been a global industry. Instead of seeking dominance, the United States should find its place in it.

"We have about 50GW of components and about 2GW of batteries.". Our goal is of course to build a strong supply chain that covers not just the components but the entire system, Hopper told PV Tech. "Our position is that this is a global economy and we will always be part of the supply chain."