(Yicai) Dec. 28 -- GCL Group Holdings, a major Chinese solar materials maker, has begun building the world's biggest perovskite solar cell factory in the city of Suzhou, marking a commercial milestone for the new type of photovoltaic cell.

The plant’s production capacity will reach two gigawatts, GCL Photoelectric Materials, a unit of the Suzhou-based company, announced on its website yesterday. The new facility will be built in two phases and the products will be 2.4 meters in length and 1.2 meters in width, it added.

Perovskite solar cells use a perovskite-structured compound as the light-harvesting material. Representing the third generation of solar cells, they have a shorter manufacturing process that requires less energy than traditional silicon modules, but mass production remains in the starting gate as the necessary industrial processes and equipment need to be improved, according to a market insider.

GCL Photoelectric built its first production line for perovskite cells in September 2021. It can produce 100 megawatts of solar panels with the dimensions of 1 meters by 2 meters a year.

The panels made at the new plant will have a relatively high photoelectric conversion efficiency of 26 percent, the firm said. The previous smaller-sized product has a conversion rate of 18 percent, which is comparable to that of mainstream cadmium telluride solar panels, it added, citing the results of tests carried out by China’s National Institute of Metrology.

Founded in 2019, GCL Photoelectric focuses on perovskites and is striving to become a top photovoltaic module producer. A year ago, it secured CNY500 million (USD70 million) in a Series B+ fundraiser led by Temasek Holdings, Sequoia China, and IDG Capital.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine