Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer, recently announced the commissioning of two grid connected solar power systems on the China Pavilion and the Theme Pavilion of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.
The building-integrated solar systems have a combined power output of 3.12MW.
The Theme Pavilion has a 2.8MW Suntech solar panel based system comprised of 96 custom-designed triangular sections and covers an area of 31,104 square meters. Between the two systems, 2.8 million kilowatt hours of electricity is expected to be generated annually and will displace 1,000 tons of coal consumption and 2,500 tons of carbon emissions per year.
Suntech solar panels are a popular choice in Australia for home solar power systems and the company has also undertaken very complex commercial solar systems around the world. Recent projects include the 120kW Beijing Jingya Hotel curtain wall, an 800kW system at the Wuxi Airport and the 1MW BIPV (Building Integrated Photovoltaics) facade at Suntech’s new headquarters in Wuxi.
Suntech also recently completed China’s first 10MW utility-scale solar power project in Shizuishan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
Suntech products include the company’s patent-pending Pluto technology for crystalline silicon solar cells, which the company says improves power output by up to 12% compared to conventional production methods. In March 2009, Suntech Pluto Technology achieved conversion efficiencies of 19% on monocrystalline PV cells and 17% on multicrystalline solar cells in production.
However, Suntech became somewhat a victim of its own success recently. Last week, the company announced it is selling anything it can produce and all solar panel production has already been spoken for right through until at least the end of June this year.
