GBC Visits Red Solar PV Plant
In the context of the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo 2025 (#CAETE2025), the Chair of the Global Business Council (GBC) Aaron Kwang POON was invited to visit the Red Solar PV plant located in the Hitech Industrial Zone in Changsha on 13 June 2025.
The manufacturing complex in Changsha is geared toward the production of #PV panels and energy storage systems (#ESS). During the guided tour, Chairman Poon had the opportunity to witness the end-to-end production process from silicon wafer to PV panel. Firstly, the wafer is precisely sliced using laser. Then, the photosensitive plates are mounted on a substrate and are electrically connected. In the final step, the module is framed with aluminum rectangular tubes.
After passing inspection, the PV modules are typically packaged in carton boxes placed on pallets ready for shipment by containers. The assembly line is nearly fully automated with humans acting as supervisors and as quality controllers at key stages. The process employs #AI-powered image processing and recognition to automatically detect defects.
At the moment in the solar panel industry, monocrystalline predominates over polycrystalline technology due to higher conversion efficiency — typically 18-22% for monocrystalline 15-18% for polycrystalline — and a better performance profile under high temperatures or low-light environments.
Currently, the most common product is the 630 W panel but Red Solar’s panels can tailor-made according to the client’s specifictions. Typically, one 20-foot container can hold eight pallets of 30 modules, making up a total of 151 kW. Thus, a 10 MW solar farm would require 67 containers for the PV panels along, without counting panel mounting stands.
In addition to selling PV panels, Red Solar is a one-stop shop for solar farms by providing batteries and inverters as well. Furthermore, Red Solar provides solutions for full turnkey PV plants. As a matter of fact, it has recently built a gigafactory in Turkey in partnership with Kaylon PV.
Endowed with generous illumination and with a large portion of households still not connected to the grid, Africa presents an enormous potential and an attractive destination of the overseas expansion strategy of Red Solar.
