PV manufacturer Tongwei opens unmanned solar cell production line
Chinese photovoltaic solar cell manufacturer Tongwei Group has unveiled its S2 plant, which boasts the first unmanned monocrystalline solar cell production line in the world. The company chose its 35th anniversary to unveil the facility, which has a starting nameplate capacity of 2 GW and will bring Tongwei's monocrystalline capacity to about 3.4 GW. Rival firm GCL System Integrated Technology also recently established a facility to test 4.0 fully automated manufacturing.
China-based integrated and merchant PV manufacturer Tongwei Group recently opened its completed high-efficiency solar cell plant (S2), which includes the world’s first technically unmanned monocrystalline solar cell production line under the intelligent manufacturing term, 4.0.

The S2 plant in Chengdu, China has an initial nameplate capacity of 2GW, which brings Tongwei’s monocrystalline cell capacity to around 3.4GW. The company also has around 2GW of multicrystalline solar cell capacity. The 4.0 cell line is completely unmanned to test intelligent fully automated manufacturing tools and software systems.

Tongwei chose to officially launch the new facility in tandem with a massive ceremony celebrating the company’s 35 years of business operations.

The company has also recently completed a 5,000MT polysilicon plant expansion, bringing nameplate production capacity to 20,000MT. However, the company is also undertaking the construction of a new 50,000MT polysilicon plant.

Recently, GCL-SI (GCL System Integrated Technology) established a module assembly workshop that was completely unmanned to test intelligent fully automated manufacturing tools and software systems under its own manufacturing 4.0 initiative.