Air Liquide recently confirmed its leading position in the PV marketwith the recent signature of 13 new contracts with crystalline-Silicon(c-Si) solar cell manufacturers in China.

The Group has expandedits supply to Chinese market leaders JA Solar and Yingli Green Energy.Air Liquide will invest over €10 million to meet the needs of thesecustomers.

China is already the world’s leading manufacturer ofsolar cells, hosting around 35 percent of total world capacity.Recently, the Chinese government announced a target of 20 GWp powerinstalled by 2020.

Air Liquide is now the carrier gases andspecialty gases supplier of JA Solar and Yingli, respectively China’snumber two and number three manufacturer, with a combined capacity of1,400 MWp.

Air Liquide is supplying:
* JA Solar’s solar cell production fabs in the Jiangsu’ and Hebei’ provinces;
* Yingli’s solar cell and Poly-Silicon facilities in Baoding Photovoltaic park, located in Hebei province.

AirLiquide is the partner of China’s three main solar cell manufacturers,since it already supplies Suntech, the largest c-Si producer in China(as announced in May 2009).

In addition, in Beijing, Shanghai,Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Hebei, Air Liquide was recently awarded variousnew long-term contracts for the supply of carrier gases and ofspecialty gases, namely to Jinko Solar, Sunflower and DelSolar, as wellas to eight other new c-Si fabs under construction, for a totalcombined new manufacturing capacity of above 1,300 MWp per year.

Inlight of the latest contracts, Air Liquide has become the supplier ofover 100 solar cell manufacturing companies around the world, with anoverall c-Si capacity above 10 GWp per year.

Francisco Martins,Vice-President World Business Line Electronics of the Air LiquideGroup, said: “We are pleased to have been chosen to supply the threelargest solar cell manufacturers in China. This confirms our ability tosupply added-value gases and turnkey solutions to this industry. Theserecent contracts reinforce our leading position in this fast-changingindustry. The photovoltaic activity is at the crossroads of Energy andthe Environment, two growth drivers for the Air Liquide Group.”